268 POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. 



larva of a Beetle, and considered a great luxury ; Grass- 

 hoppers are said to furnish nourishment to the Bedouins ; 

 Locusts are eaten in Africa, and the Brazilian tribes are 

 very fond of a species of Ant which has an agreeable acid 

 flavour. The honey of the Bee is mentioned as food even 

 in the earliest times, and is almost universally used at the 

 present day. Some insects are used medicinally ; the 

 Beetle employed in making blisters is one of the genus 

 Cantharis, or Lytta, according to some authors, and other 

 insects have been used for the same purpose ; the Coccinella 

 (Lady-bird) is sometimes applied for toothache. Formic 

 acid, obtained from Ants (Formicidos), was formerly em- 

 ployed as a volatile stimulant; and galls, produced by the 

 puncture of many small Hymenopterous insects, have also 

 their medicinal properties. 



Our clothing is indebted to the Silkworm, whose cocoon 

 furnishes the raw silk from which so many useful and 

 beautiful articles are manufactured. The genus Coccus 

 presents us with a brilliant red dye ; and we are indebted 

 to the gall-nut for one of the ingredients in ink : the true 

 gall-nut proceeds from the Cynips Gallce-tinctoria, which 

 is found in Asia Minor. 



It may interest some of my readers to have a slight idea 



