THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 161 



By what route the locusts of Africa have reached the 

 continent of Europe seems involved in some mystery ; 

 whether by the direct passage across the Mediterranean Sea, 

 or the more circuitous course by the Holy Land, seems 

 doubtful ; but it is certain that locusts have visited Europe 

 in force. In the year 591 a swarm visited Italy, pursuing 

 their destructive career, and laying waste all before them 

 until they reached the sea, in which they perished. The 

 pestilence, arising from the stench, carried off men and 

 beasts to the number of more than a million. 



It were obviously foreign to my purpose to attempt the 

 differentiation of the locusts of the Old Continent and the 

 New; doubtless it would be easy to exhibit scientific charac- 

 ters, but Dr. Cyrus Thomas has lately performed the task in 

 an exhaustive and masterly manner that leaves nothing to be 

 desired. His work on the 'Acrididaj of North America' is 

 one of the most complete monographs ever published. 



There is a question of nomenclature about which I would 

 raise my feeble voice, — the restriction of the words locust and 

 grasshopper. In England we use the words interchangably, 

 and attach no particular meaning to either. But in America 

 the line seems drawn with great strictness: — "Everyone in 

 this country," says Mr. Betbune, "is perfectly familiar with 

 what is commonly called a ' grasshopper;' but how very few 

 are aware that what they terra a grasshopper, and see too 

 often to think much about, is the same kind of insect as the 

 much-dreaded, famine-producing locust, that constituted one 

 of the plagues of Egypt, and that is an object of so much 

 terror wherever it prevails. A true locust it nevertheless is ; 

 but it were well, for many reasons, that our people became 

 accustomed to call it by its right name. Our common species 

 in this province, while it does not possess the power of 

 suddenly appearing in vast numbers and emigrating from 

 place to place, occasionally becomes greatly multiplied, and 

 proves very destructive. The western locust or grasshopper, 

 however, differing but very slightly from our species, is, as 

 we shall presently show, quite as formidable a destroyer as 

 its oriental congener. While the true American locusts are 

 commonly called grasshoppers, and the true grasshoppers are 

 termed crickets, katydids, &c., another element of confusion 

 is mingled with our insect nomenclature, by the common 



