130 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



probably an equal error with the last ; and it is 

 very droll to find the talented Keaumur pleading 

 with great earnestness that the caterpillars were 

 not unwholesome as food. He even declares his 

 opinion, that if these creatures were to become 

 excessively numerous in France, the inhabitants 

 might be compelled to treat them as the wretched 

 inhabitants of Africa do the locusts, and when 

 they have eaten up every green thing, fall upon 

 and eat them. With as much learning and elo- 

 quence as if he was treating one of his most 

 favourite topics in entomology, M. Reaumur re- 

 commends these larvae for human food, adding, 

 that a very little time would enable us to conquer 

 our -disgust at such aliment, and that we should 

 even welcome to our tables a dish of the larvae in 

 question as an agreeable luxury ! It is to be 

 hoped, if ever such a custom be originated, it will 

 be confined to the place of its birth the country 

 of this great, but, in this respect, whimsical 

 naturalist. 



To account for their excessive multiplication, 

 we have no need to have recourse to enchantment 

 for a solution of the difficulty. Each of the 

 gamma moths produces about four hundred 



