72 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1781. 



it is not to be wondered at that we do not discover them ; but the case is much 

 altered when they arrive at the winged state, in which they are to roam, though 

 but for a few hours, through the wide air, and explore new and distant regions. 

 In this form the animal Gomes' abroad during or soon after the first tornado, 

 which at the latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the ensuing 

 rains, seldom waiting for a 2d or 3d shower, if the 1st, as is generally the case, 

 happens in the night, and brings much wet after it. 



The quantities that are to be found the next morning all over the surface of 

 the earth, but particularly on the waters, is astonishing ; for their wings are 

 only calculated to carry them a few hours, and after the rising of the sun not 

 one in 1000 is to be found with 4 wings, unless the morning continues rainy, 

 when here and there a solitary being is seen winging its way from one place to 

 another, as if solicitous only to avoid its numerous enemies, particularly various 

 species of ants, which are hunting on every spray, on every leaf, and in every 

 possible place, for this unhappy race, of which probably not a pair in many 

 millions get into a place of safety, to fulfil the great law of nature, and lay the 

 foundation of a new community. Not only all kinds of ants, birds, and car- 

 nivorous reptiles, as well as insects, are on the hunt for them, but the inhabi- 

 tants of many countries, and particularly of that part of Africa where Mr. S. 

 was, eat them.* On the following morning however they are to be seen 



* Mr. Konig, in an Essay on these Insects, read before the Society of Naturalists of Berlin, says, 

 that, in some parts of the East Indies, the queens are given alive to old men for strengthening the 

 back, and that the natives have a method of catching the winged insects, which he calls females, 

 before the time of emigration. They make two holes in the nest; the one to windward, and the 

 other to leeward. At the leeward opening they place the mouth of a pot, previously rubbed within 

 with an aromatic herb calk-d bergera, which is more valued there than the laurel in Europe. On the 

 windward side they make a fire of stinking materials, which not only drives these insects into the 

 pots, but frequently the hooded snakes also, on which account they are obliged to be cautious in 

 removing them. By this method they catch great quantities, of which they make with flour a 

 variety of pastry, which they can afford to sell very cheap to the poorer ranks of people. Mr. Konig 

 adds, that this kind of food is very plentiful ; the too great use of it brings on an epidemic colic and 

 dysentery, which kills in two or three hours. 



I have not, says Mr. S., found the Africans so ingenious in procuring or dressing them. They are 

 content with a very small part of those which, at the time of swarming, or rather of emigration, 

 fall into the neighbouring waters, which they skim off with calabashes, bring large kettles full of 

 them to their habitations, and parch them in iron pots over a gentle fire, stirring them about as is 

 usually done in roasting coffee. In that state, without sauce or any other addition, they serve them 

 as delicious food ; and they put them by hands-full into their mouths, as we do comfits. 1 have eaten 

 them dressed this way several times, and think them both delicate, nourishing, and wholesome; they 

 are something sweeter, but not so fat and cloying, as the caterpillar or maggot of the palm-tree 

 snout-beetle, curculio palmarum, which is served up at all the luxurious tables of West Indian 

 epicures, particularly of the French, as the greatest dainty of the western world. 



According to the Baron de Geer, Mr. Sparrman s;iys, that the Hottuntots eat these insects, and 



