INSECTS. 109 



remove the lights from the supper- table. In regard to the 

 Indian locusts a correspondent of Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 informed these authors that he was eyewitness to an im- 

 mense army of locusts which ravaged the Maliratta coun- 

 try, and was supposed to come from Arabia. This column 

 extended five hundred miles, and was so compact when on 

 the wing that it darkened the sun like an eclipse ; so that 

 no shadow was cast upon the ground, and some lofty tombs, 

 distant not more than two hundred yards from the observer, 

 were rendered invisible. This was not the Gryllus migra- 

 tcrius of Linnffius, but a red species, and its peculiar colour 

 added to the horror of the scene ; for, after having stripped 

 the trees of their foliage, it congregated around the bare 

 and desolate branches, producing a hue like blood. " And 

 the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, 

 and of many horses running to battle." Another orthop- 

 terous species, now sufficiently common in our kitchens 

 and pantries, we mean the cockroach {Blatta oricritalis), 

 was originally and no doubt unintentionally imported into 

 Europe from the countries of our present disquisition. 



Among the lantern-flies, which form part of the Hemip- 

 terous order, the Fulgora diadema may be mentioned as an 

 Indian species, remarkable for its long spiny muricated 

 front, with a triple division at the crown. It is of a brown- 

 ish colour, variegated with red and yellow. 



The insects called kernies likewise belong to the hemip- 

 terous order, and were highly valued in commerce and 

 manufacture before the introduction of the still more fa- 

 mous cochineal {Coccus cadi), which is a South American 

 species. The Coccus ilicis is common in the south of Eu- 

 rope on the evergreen oak, and appears to be widely dis- 

 tributed over many of the south-eastern countries of the 

 ancient world. Though supplanted over the greater por- 

 tion of Europe by the American product, it is still exten- 

 sively used in India and the Persian dominions.* It has 

 been employed from time immemorial to impart a blood-red 

 or crimson die to cloth, and was known to the Phenicians 

 by the name of thola. It was called coccus (Ksxxof) by 

 the Greeks, and kermes or alkerraes by the Arabians. Ac- 

 cording to Beckman the epithet rermiculatum was applied 



* Introdaction to Entomology, and Bocbart's Hieroaoic. .-. > 



Vol. III.— K 



