THE GRASSHOPPER, &c. 



475 



the danger of the place. The insect, therefore , 

 takes up the wasted trunk with its feelers, and 

 ihrows it, with wonderful strength, at least six 

 inches from the edge of its hole ; and then 

 patiently sets about mending the breaches 

 which its fortifications had received in the last 

 engagement. Nothing can abate its indus- 

 try, its vigilance, its patience, or its rapacity. 

 It will work for a week together to make its 

 pit-fall; it will continue upon the watch for 

 more than a month, patiently expecting the ap- 

 proach of its prey ; and if it comes in greater 

 quantities than is needful, yet still the little 

 voracious creature will quit the insect it has 

 newly killed, and leave it half eaten, to kill 

 and attack any other that happens to fall with- 

 in the sphere of its malignity : though so vor- 

 acious, it is suprisingly patient of hunger ; 

 some of them having been kept in a box with 

 sand for six months and upwards, without feed- 

 ing at all. 



When the lion-ant attains a certain age, in 

 which it is to change into another form, it 

 then leaves off its usual rapacious habits, but 

 keeps on its industry. It no longer continues 

 to make pits, but furrows up the sand all 

 around in an irregular manner ; testifying those 

 workings and violent agitations which most 

 insects exhibit previous to their transformation. 

 These animals are produced in autumn, and 

 generally live a year, and perhaps two, before 

 they assume a winged form. Certain it is, 

 that they are found at the end of winter of all 

 sizes ; and it would seem that many of the 

 smaller kinds had not yet attained sufficient 

 maturity for transformation. Be this as it 

 may, when the time of change approaches, if 

 the insect finds its little cell convenient, it 

 seeks no other ; if it is obliged to remove, after 

 furrowing up the sand, it hides itself under it, 

 horns and all. It there spins a thread, in the 

 manner of the spider ; which being made of a 

 glutinous substance, and being humid from 

 the moisture of its body, sticks to the little 

 particles of sand among which it is spun ; and 

 in proportion as it is thus excluded, the insect 

 rolls up its web, sand and all, into a ball, of 

 which itself is the centre. This ball is about 

 half an inch in diameter ; and within it the 

 insect resides, in an apartment sufficiently 

 spacious for all its motions. The outside is 

 composed of sand and silk ; the inside is lined 

 with silk only, of a fine pearl-colour, extremely 

 delicate, and perfectly beautiful. But though 

 the work is so curious within, it exhibits no- 

 thing to external appearance but a lump of 

 sand ; and thus escapes the search of birds that 

 might otherwise disturb the inhabitant within. 

 The insect continues thus shut up for six weeks 

 >r two months ; and gradually parts with its 

 *yes, its feelers, its feet, and its skin ; all which 

 are thrust into a corner of the inner apart- 



ment, like a rag. The insect then appears al- 

 most in its winged state, except that there is a 

 thin skin which wraps up the wings, and that 

 appears to be nothing else but a liquor dried 

 on their outside. Still, however, the little 

 animal is too delicate and tender to venture 

 from its retreat; but continues enclosed for 

 sometime longer: at length, when the members 

 of this new insect have acquired the necessary 

 consistence and vigour, it tears open its lodg- 

 ing, and breaks through its wall. For this pur- 

 pose it has two teeth, like those of grasshoppers, 

 with which it eats through, and enlarges the 

 opening, till it gets out. Its body, which is 

 turned like a screw, takes up no more than the 

 space of a quarter of an inch ; but when it is 

 unfolded, it becomes half an inch in length ; 

 while its wings, that seemed to occupy the 

 smallest space, in two minutes' time unfold, 

 and become longer than the body. In short, 

 it becomes a large and beautiful fly, of the 

 libellula kind, with a long slender body, of a 

 brown colour ; a small head, with large bright 

 eyes, long slender legs, and four large trans- 

 parent reticulated wings. The rest of its 

 habits resemble that insect whose form it bears; 

 except, that instead of dropping its eggs in 

 the water, it deposits them in sand, where 

 they are soon hatched into that rapacious 

 insect so justly admired for its method of 

 catching its prey. 



CHAP. VI. 



OF THE GRASSHOPPER, THE LOCUST, THE 



CICADA, THE CRICKET, AND THE 



MOLE-CRICKET. 



BELONGING to the second order of insects, 

 we find a tribe of little animals, which, though 

 differing in size and colour, strongly resemble 

 each other in figure, appetites, nature, and 

 transformation. But though they all appear 

 of one family, yet man has been taught to hold 

 them in different estimation ; for while some of 

 this tribe amuse him with their chirpings, and 

 banish solitude from the fields, others come in 

 swarms, eat up everything that is green, and 

 in a single night convert the most delightful 

 landscape into a dreary waste. However, it* 

 these animals be separately considered, the 

 devouring locust is not in the least more mis- 

 chievous than the musical grasshopper ; the 

 only difference is, that one species comes for 

 food in a swarm, the other feeds singly. 



That animal which is called the grasshop- 

 per with us, differs greatly from the cicada of 

 antiquity ; for as our insect is active enough 

 in hopping through the long grass, from 

 whence it has taken its name, the cicada had 





