480 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



pearance was about the latter end of March, 

 when the wind had been southerly for some time. 

 In the beginning of April, their numbers 

 were so vastly increased, that, in the heat of the 

 day they formed themselves into large swarms, 

 which appeared like clouds, and darkened the 

 sun. In the middle of May they began to dis- 

 appear, retiring into the plains to deposit their 

 eggs. In the nextmonth, being June, the young 

 brood began to make their appearance, form- 

 ing many compact bodies of several hundred 

 yards square ; which afterwards marching for- 

 ward, climbed the trees, walls, and houses, 

 eating every thing that was green in their way. 

 The inhabitants, to stop their progress, laid 

 trenches all over their fields and gardens, fill- 

 ing them with water. Some placed large 

 quantities of heath, stubble, and such like 

 combustible matter, in rows, and set them on 

 fire on the approach of the locusts. But all 

 this was to no purpose; for the trenches 

 were quickly filled up, and the fires put out 

 by the vast number of swarms that succeeded 

 each other. A day or two after one of these 

 was in motion, others that were just hatched 

 came to glean after them, gnawing off the 

 young branches and the very bark of the trees. 

 Having lived near a month in this manner, 

 they arrived at their full growth, and threw 

 off their worm-like state, by casting their 

 skins. To prepare themselves for this 

 change, they fixed their hinder feet to some 

 bush or twig, or corner of a stone, when im- 

 mediately, by an undulating motion used on 

 this occasion, their heads would first appear, 

 and soon after the rest of their bodies. The 

 whole transformation was performed in seven 

 or eight minutes' time ; after which, they were 

 a little while in a languishing condition ; but 

 as soon as the sun and air had hardened their 

 wings, and dried up the moisture that remained 

 after casting off their sloughs, they returned 

 again to their former greediness, with an ad- 

 dition both of strength and agility. But they 

 did not continue long in this state before they 

 were entirely dispersed ; after laying their 

 eggs, directing their course northward, they 

 probably perished in the sea. It is said that 

 the holes these animals make, to deposit their 

 eggs, are four feet deep in the ground ; the 

 eggs are about fourscore in number, of the size 

 of caraway comforts, and bundled up together 

 in clusters. 1 



It would be endless to recount all the mis. 

 chiefs which these famished insects have at 

 different times occasioned ; but what can have 

 induced them to take such distant flights, when 



1 The Locust. Dr Clarke, in liis Travels in Tartary, 

 on approaching Cufl'a, thus notices the number of locusts: 



" We now began to perceive the truth of those surpri- 

 sing relations which we had often heard and read con- 

 cerning the locust in countries infested with that insect. 

 The steppes were entirely covered by their bodies ; and 

 their numbers falling, resembled flakes of snow, carried 

 obliquely by the wind, and spreading a thick mist over 

 the sun. Myriads fell over the carriage, the horses, 

 and the drivers. The stories of these animals, told us 



by the Tartars, were more marvellous than any we had 

 before heard. They said that instances had occurred of 

 persons being suffocated by a fall of locusts in the steppes. 

 It was now the season, they further added, in which their 

 numbers began to diminish. When they first make 

 their appearance, a thick dark cloud is seen very high in 

 the air, which, as it passes, obscures the sun. I had al- 

 ways supposed the stones of the locust to exaggerate their 

 real appearance ; but found their swarms so astonishing 

 in all the steppes over which we passed in this part of our 

 journey, that the whole face of nature might have been 

 described as concealed by a living veil. They were of 

 two kinds ; the gryllus Tartaricus, and the gryllus mi- 

 gratorius, or common migratory locust. The first is al- 

 most twice the size of the second, and since it precedes 

 the other, bears the name of the herald or messenger. 

 The migratory locust has red legs, and its inferior wings 

 have a lively red colour, which gives a bright fiery ap- 

 pearance to the animal when fluttering in the sun's rays. 

 The strength of limbs possessed by it is amazing : when 

 pressed down by the hand upon a table, it has almost 

 power to raise the fingers ; but this force resides wholly 

 in the legs ; for if one of these be broken off, which hap- 

 pens by the slightest accident, the power of action ceases. 

 There is yet a third variety of locust, gryllus viridis- 

 simus of Linrifeus, found near the Don and the Kuban, 

 which is entirely of a green colour. This last 1 have 

 since seen upon the banks of the Cam in my own coun- 

 try, and felt for the moment intimidated, lest such a pre- 

 sage should be the herald of the dreadful scourge which 

 the locust bears wherever it abounds. On whatever spot 

 these animals fall, the whole vegetable produce disap- 

 pears. Nothing escapes them, from the leaves of the 

 forest to the herbs of the plain. Fields, vineyards, gar. 

 dens, pastures, everything is laid waste; and sometimes 

 the only appearance left upon the naked soil is a disgust- 

 ing superficies caused by their putrefying bodies, the 

 stench of which is sufficient to breed a pestilence." 



Ravages of Locusts.' When Captains Irby and Man- 

 gles were travelling round the southern extremity of the 

 Dead Sea, in the end of May, they had an opportunity 

 of observing these insect depredators. "In the morn- 

 ing," say they, " we quitted Shobek. On our way we 

 passed a swarm of locusts that were resting themselves 

 in a gully; they were in sufficient numbers to alter ap- 

 parently the colour of the rock on which they had alight- 

 ed, and to make a sort of crackling noise while eating, 

 which we heard before we reached them. Volney com- 

 pares it to the foraging of an army. Our conductors told 

 us they were on their way to Gaza, and that they pass 

 almost annually." 



Even our own island has been alarmed by the appear- 

 ance of locusts, a considerable number having visited us 

 in 1748 ; but they happily perished without propagating. 

 Other parts of Europe have not been so fortunate. They 

 have frequently come also from Africa into Italy and 

 Spain. In the year 59 L an infinite army of locusts, of a 

 size unusually large, ravaged a considerable part of Italy, 

 and being at last cast into the sea, (as seems for the most 

 part to be their fate,) a pestilence, it is alleged, arose 

 from their stench, which carried oft' nearly a million of 

 men and beasts. In the Venetian territory, likewise, ii. 

 1478, more than 30,000 persons are said to have per- 

 ished in a famine chiefly occasioned by the depredations 

 of locusts. Insect Transformation. 



Mode of Dispersing Locusts. We traversed the 

 grand steppe or desert of Astrakhan for two days. On 

 the evening of the 1st of August, we arrived at a Rus. 

 siau village, which was surrounded by a considerable tract 



