INSECTS. 



Scorpion. 



Common Locust. Cantharis. or Blister Beetle. 



The Simulus Polyphemus, or King Crab, is fonnd in the neighborhood of the Molluccas, and on the coast 

 of America. It sometimes attains the length of two feet. Its legs are very short, the anterior apparently 

 conveying food to the mouth, and the posterior adapted to respiration. 



The House Cricket greatly resembles the Grasshopper in shape, voice, leaping, arid method of propaga- 

 tion. Its color is of a uniform rusty brown. It lives in the crevices about the fire-place, the smallest 

 serving it for shelter, and where it once lodges, it is sure to propagate. These creatures chirp the year 

 round, chiefly during the night, when they emerge from their holes. They are omnivorous, as well as 

 very voracious, feeding on meat, flour, bread, and especially sugar. 'They have also a great propensity for 

 liquids, and are often found drowned in milk vessels. 



Dragon Flies are of several species, all which, however, agree in their main characteristics. The largest 

 are from two to three inches long. Their body is divided into eleven rings ; the tail is forked ; their eyes 

 are large, horny, and transparent ; their four wings are large and transparent, and always lie flat, while 

 they are at rest; their colors are varied and brilliant, green, blue, crimson, scarlet, white, and black. 



They are produced from eggs dropped in the water, and the larvae are water worms, with six feet, which, 

 from their voracity, have been called the crocodiles of vrater insects. This voracity marks also the per- 

 fected animal, which has been seen to devour three times its own bulk in a single hour. It preys on all 

 kinds of insects, from the smallest up to the, wasp, hornet, and butterfly. 



The Locust, which from immemorial time, has been a terrific scourge alike of Asia, Africa, and Europe, is 

 called the " Great Brown Locust," and is supposed to have originated in Africa. It is about three inches 

 long, and has two horns, or feelers, an inch in length. The head and horns are brownish, while about the 

 mouth and on the inside of the larger legs it is blue. The shield covering the back is greenish; the upper 

 side purple. The upper wings are brown, with small dusky spots, with a large one at the tips, the under 

 wings are more transparent, and of a light brown, tinctured with green, but with a dark cloud of spots near 

 the tips. Such is the animal so truly terrible in its birth-place, the east, as often to be employed in Scrip- 

 ture, as an image to portray what is most destructive and desolating. But it has often visited Europe also, 

 especially its southern sections, and its ravages have there, too, been most appalling. i 



When these creatures set forth on an expedition, they go in multitudes, literally numberless, with a 

 leader at their head, whose guidance they follow. When they light upon a district, they completely 

 devour every green thing, leaving the trees above mere skeletons, and the ground beneath a naked waste. 

 In this way a famine is often produced, especially in Europe, where vegetation once destroyed, cannot as 

 in tropic climes, renew itself till the coming of another spring. No animal on earth multiplies so rapidly 

 as this, if the sun be warm and the soil holding its eggs be dry. 



Still more formidable, however, than even the great Brown Locust, is the great West India Locust, 

 which is about as large as the barrel of a goose-quill, with a body six or seven inches long, and divided 

 into nine or ten joints. It has two small eyes, standing out like crab's eyes, and two feelers, like long 

 hairs. The whole body is studded with excrescences, not much bigger than pin-points ; is of a roundish 

 shape, decreasing in circumference towards the tail, which is divided into two horns. Between these is a 

 sheath, containing a small, dangerous sting, which is infallibly darted into any person, who chances to touch 

 this insect. The wound produces a universal shivering and trembling which, however, may soon be stop- 

 ped by rubbing it with palm oil. 



(356) 



