302 THE INSECT WOELD. 



rarely, in England. This species is greenish, with transparent 

 elytra of a dirty grey, whitish wings, and pink legs. A second 

 species, the Italian Locust, also does a great deal of damage in the 

 south. All the species undergo five moults, which take six weeks 

 each. The last takes place at the end of the hot weather, towards 

 the autumn. 



It is especially in warm climates that they become such 

 fearful pests to agriculture. "Wherever they alight, they change 

 the most fertile country into an arid desert. They are seen coming 

 in innumerable bands, which, from afar, have the appearance of 

 stormy clouds, even hiding the sun. As far and as wide as the 

 eye can reach, the sky is black, and the soil is inundated with 

 them. The noise of these millions of wings may be compared 

 to the sound of a cataract. When this fearful army alights 

 upon the ground, the branches of the trees break, and in a few 

 hours, and over an extent of many leagues, all vegetation has 

 disappeared, the wheat is gnawed to its very roots, the trees are 

 stripped of their leaves. Everything has been destroyed, gnawed 

 down, and devoured. When nothing more is left, the terrible 

 host rises, as if in obedience to some given signal, and takes its 

 departure, leaving behind it despair and famine. It goes to look 

 for fresh food seeking whom, or rather in this case, what it may 

 devour ! 



During the year succeeding that in which a country has been 

 devastated by showers of locusts, damage from these insects is the 

 less to be feared ; for it happens often that after having ravaged 

 everything, they die of hunger before the laying season begins. 

 But their death becomes the cause of a greater evil. Their 

 innumerable carcases, lying in heaps and heated by the sun, are 

 not long in entering into a state of putrefaction ; epidemic diseases, 

 caused by the poisonous gases emanating from them, soon break 

 out, and decimate the populations. These Locusts are bred in 

 the deserts of Arabia and Tartary ; and the east winds carry 

 them into Africa and Europe. Ships in the eastern parts of the 

 Mediterranean are sometimes covered with them at a great dis- 

 tance from the land. 



It is related in the Bible, in the tenth chapter of Exodus, that 

 Jehovah commanded Moses to stretch forth his hand to make 



