104 LECTURE IX. 



word axpfas in the sacred writings, may rather 

 mean the tender shoots of vegetables , but since 

 the fact is so well ascertained that Locusts are 

 still eaten in those regions, we need not admit any 

 other interpretation than the common one, nor 

 need we wonder that an abstemious Anchoret, 

 during his state of solitary seclusion from the 

 commerce of the world, should support himself on 

 a food which certainly is not to be numbered 

 among the luxuries of life, but merely to be re- 

 garded as a substitute for food of a more agree- 

 able nature. 



I shall only mention as a farther example of 

 the Hemipterous insects, the beautiful genus Fill- 

 gora or Lantern-Fly. It is distinguished by the 

 peculiar structure of the head, which in most spe- 

 cies, and more especially in the great or chief 

 kind, is of a large, lengthened, and inflated form, 

 as if swelled out with air ; and the mouth consists, 

 of a long, slender tube, lying beneath the breast. 

 The F. Lanternaria or South-American Lantern 

 Fly is certainly one of the most curious, and eveu 

 one of the most beautiful of insects. It is a na- 

 tive of many parts of South- America, and is com- 

 mon in Surinam, wjiere it was observed in par ? 



