460 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



particularly about Bristol, by swarms of grasshoppers. In 1746 also, 

 our island was visited by a swarm of the migratory Locust ; but they 

 perished without propagating. See also Lloyd, on swarms of Locusts 

 which appeared in Wales, in Philosoph. Trans. No. 208. Also 

 Willichius, Dialogus de Lociistis, 8vo. Argent. IS^-i ; Kirchmaier (T.), 

 De Locustis, 4to. 2 pi. Wittemberg ; Kirchmaier (G. G.), Ejnstol. 

 de Locustis Insolitis, 4to. Wittemb. 1693; Ludolphi, De Locustis, 

 fol. 1691, Frankf. on the Maine; (Rappolt E.), Geiieral ContempL, 

 Sfc. (3 Prussian Locusts described), 4to. Berlin, 1730. 



In various countries of Africa and Asia the inhabitants make use 

 of these insects as food, pulling off their wings and legs, and frying 

 them in butter, oil, or (according to Clapperton) pickling them 

 or drying them in a mass ; hence the inhabitants of these coun- 

 tries have obtained the name of Acridophagi. The inhabitants of 

 Senegal dry another species (figured by Shaw and Denon), and which 

 they then reduce to powder and use like flour. (L,i\ir.Ileg}ie An. t, v, 

 p. 187.) Madden also states, that the same process is adopted by 

 the Arabs. (Travels in Tnrkei/, vol. ii. p. 31.) See also Hasselquist's 

 dissertation "Afi Locustoe ah Arabicis cibi loco adhibeantur,'' in Swedish 

 Trans. 1752 ; also, the treatise by Baldanus, Locustce Majores quibus 

 Johannes in Deserto vitam tolerasse dicitur (^Comment. Bonnon. 

 torn, v.). In an extract from an American paper, in my possession, 

 an account is given of the destruction of the large common American 

 winged grasshopper by ichneumons, which are stated to deposit 

 their eggs in the body of the grasshopper at the period of depositing 

 its eggs; and a correspondent (lonicus) of The Entomological Maga- 

 zine found a great many large pink eggs, supposed to be those of 

 some parasite, attached to the under wings of Gryllus italicus, in 

 Cephalonia. The British species are of small size (with the exception 

 of one or two of the migratory species of larger size, of which single 

 individuals have occurred at rare intervals) : they are, in fact, the well- 

 known grasshoppers, whose chirp is so constantly heard in our mea- 

 dows in the summer and autumn months: they, however, prefer hot 

 and grassy situations. These seldom attain an inch in length. They 

 light to a very great length, and occasionally assist their escape by 

 taking wing, but only for a short distance. The species of the genus 

 Tetrix Latreille (Acrydium Fabr.) are remarkable for the greatly de- 

 veloped prothorax, of which the posterior part is extended completely 

 over, and sometimes considerably beyond, the extremity of the 



