L O C U S T I D JE. 



voyages. Indeed, it may well be said, that of 

 all our insect enemies, the locust is the most terrible, 

 its countless myriads changing the appearance of a 

 fertile country irjto an arid desert ; reducing whole 

 districts to the most frightful want, and of which even 

 the death is a cause of misery from the immense num- 

 ber of bodies which, from their putrefaction, put a 

 final stroke to the mischief by infecting the atmosphere 

 with a poisonous effluvium, and thus destroying those 

 which nave escaped the horrors of famine. It may 

 be said that our picture is too highly coloured; but 

 these insects, and the effects which they have pro- 

 duced, have emerged from the domain of natural his- 

 tory.and become the materials of the history of nations, 

 the different periods of their appearance being re- 

 corded in the narratives of the historian, like the 

 sudden irruptions of hordes of barbarians, which 

 are scarcely less to be feared than these winged 

 plagues. 



By the despiser of the small things of the creation, 

 insects are alike regarded with disgust, or considered 

 as unworthy of regard ; we would, however, call to his 

 remembrance, the fact, that out of the seven grievous 

 plagues of Egypt, f iur were caused by frogs, lice, 

 flies, and locusts. We are not amongst those who 

 would teach natural history out of the Holy Scrip- 

 tures, which were written for far higher ends, but we 

 canriot avoid quoting from the account of the last of 

 these plagues the following description : " And the 

 locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested 

 on all the coasts of Egypt, very grievous were they, 

 before them were no such locusts as they, neither 

 after them shall be such (L c. as regards the vast extent 

 of their devastations). For they covered the face of 

 the whole earth, so that the land was darkened ; and 

 they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fr'uit 

 of the trees which the hail had left, and there remained 

 not any green thing on the trees, or in the herb of 

 the field, through all the land of Egypt." Exodus, 

 chap, x., vers. 14, 15. But it is in the second chapter 

 of the Prophecies of Joel that we meet with the most 

 splendid and poetical description of the ravages of these 

 animals. Their coming is called " a day of darkness 

 and gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick dark- 

 ness;" evidently in allusion to their immense swarms 

 hiding the sun during their flight : " The land is as 

 the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a 

 desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape 

 them." " Like the noise of chariots on the tops of 

 mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of 

 fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set 

 in battle array" alluding to their great powers of 

 leaping, and to the noise which they make in biting 

 the plants with their strong horny jaws. " They shall 

 run like mighty men, they shall climb the wall like 

 men of war, and they shall march every one on his 

 ways, and they shall not break their ranks ;" " they 

 shall run upon the wall ; they shall climb up upon the 

 houses; they shall enter in at the windows likeathief." 

 Thus accurately describing the fixed determination 

 with which they pursue their migratory route, and 

 which, as the writer is informed by a recent traveller 

 in Syria and Egypt, is the mode of progression 

 adopted by the larvae and pupae, which are destitute 

 of wings, and which are so thick upon the ground, 

 that at every footstep they are trodden to death. 



This statement corresponds with that given with 

 more minute detail by the Russian traveller Pallas, 

 who tells us that in serene weather they are in 



full motion in the morning, immediately after 

 the evaporation of the dew, and f no dew has fallen, 

 they appear as soon as the sun i imparts the genial 

 warmth. At first some are seen running about 

 like messengers among the reposing swarms, which 

 arc lying partly compressed upon the ground at the 

 side of small eminences, and partly attached to tall 

 plants and shrubs. Shortly after the whole body begins 

 to move forward in one direction, and with little de- 

 viation. They resemble a swarm of ants all taking 

 the same course at small distances, but without touch- 

 ing each other ; they uniformly travel towards a certain 

 region as fast as a fly can run, and without leaping 

 unless pursued; in which case, indeed, they dis- 

 perse, but soon collect again and follow their former 

 route. In this manner they advance from morning 

 to evening without halting, frequently at the rate 

 o( a hundred fathoms and upwards in the course 

 of a day. Although they prefer marching along high 

 roads, footpaths, or open tracts, yet, when their pro- 

 gress is opposed by bushes, hedg'es, and ditches, they 

 penetrate through them; their way can only be im- 

 peded by the waters of brooks or canals, as they are 

 apparently terrified at every kind of moisture. Often, 

 however, they endeavour to gain the opposite bank 

 with the aid of overhanging boughs ; and if the stalks 

 of plants or shrubs be laid across the water, they pass 

 in close columns over these temporary bridges, on 

 which they even seem to rest and enjoy the refreshing 

 coolness. Towards sunset the whole swarm gradually 

 collect in parties and creep up the plants, or encamp 

 on slight eminences. On cold, cloudy, or rainy days 

 they do not travel. As soon as they acquire wings, 

 they progressively disperse, but still fly about in large 

 swarms. 



On turning to profane authors we find equally 

 abundant evidence that the locusts have lost none of 

 their destructive powers. Pliny tells us that, in some 

 of the countries of Greece, there existed a law com- 

 pelling the inhabitants to destroy these insects in the 

 three states, of egg, larva, and imago. And in the 

 Isle of Lemnos, in particular, each citizen was bound 

 annually to supply a fixed number of locusts. Entire 

 legions of lloman soldiers were also employed for this 

 purpose in the north of Africa, which country, as well 

 as the western parts of Asia, has evidently been 

 in all ages the most exposed to the attacks of these 

 enemies of the human race. Oresius tells us that in 

 the year 800 every vestige of vegetation disappeared 

 from the face of the earth owing to the presence of 

 the locusts, which being afterwards blown into the 

 sea and their bodies washed on shore, emitted a 

 stench us infectious as that arising from the remains 

 of a mighty army, precisely as described by Joel, chap, 

 xi., verse 20. And it is also said by St. Augustin, that 

 a plague produced, or probably induced by the same 

 cause, destroyed in the kingdom of Numidia and 

 adjacent parts a population of 800,000 inhabitants. 



But Spain, Italy, France, Turkey, Southern Russia, 

 Poland, and even Sweden, have been at times visited 

 by the destructive swarms of these insects, although 

 our own island has been marvellously preserved ; a 

 straggling locust having, however, been from time to 

 time found alive in this country, one of which is in 

 the collection of the writer of this article, from that 

 of Mr. Donovan. In the year 591, Italy was attacked 

 by a terrible swarm, the effluvium from which de- 

 stroyed, according to Mouflet, a prodigious number 

 of men and beasts ; and a famine was produced iu 



