LONDON INSECTS 77 



It is not easy to say which is most astounding, the 

 self-reproductive powers and quick growth of many 

 of the commonest insects, or their powers of con- 

 sumption. 



It was a Locust who told Mahomet that his tribe were 

 the army of Allah, and that had it pleased Him to fix 

 the number of their eggs at a hundred instead of at 

 ninety-nine apiece, the earth and all that was in it 

 would have been consumed. 



It is not necessary to look beyond our London flower- 

 boxes green and bright with blossoms one day, and 

 a week later little better than dry skeletons, or with 

 every leaf riddled as if it had been a target for snipe- 

 shot practice to find proof enough that Moths might 

 boast as much. 



A few years ago a couple of homely-looking brown 

 Moths, the common Cabbage (Mamestra brassicce), 

 found their way into a conservatory, the ornament of 

 a London house. The owner was weak enough to be 

 flattered with the thought that the Moths had chosen 

 the place as the best imitation of the country they 

 could find in London, and with some sort of foolish 

 idea that their presence added to the rural charms of 

 the fern banks, in a fit of mistaken tenderness (perhaps 

 of vanity) they were left undisturbed, and made them- 

 selves at home for a day or two. 



It was the husbandman warming the snake in his 

 bosom ; Sinbad the sailor giving a lift to the poor old 

 man of the sea ; Eve coquetting with the serpent and 

 the result was in its own degree as disastrous. The 



