58 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



CHAPTER XL 



HISTORY OF THE LOCUST.* 



Class Orthoptera. . Genus Locusta. 



Order Locustites. j Species Migratoria. 



179. THE locust, from the remotest ages, has 

 had a greater power to injure man, than any other 

 living creature. Its course is almost invariably 

 accompanied with famine and pestilence : man 

 is armed with no power to resist it. 



180. The locust was sent as a plague to the 

 Egyptians, especially to punish them for the 

 detention and oppression of the Israelites : the 

 whole face of the country was covered by their 

 multitudes. 



181. Afterwards, about the date B.C. 200, we 

 have it on record, that locusts again swarmed in 

 the same part of Africa. 



182. St. Augustin mentions another enormous 

 swarm in the same region, which devoured every 



* From Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology. 



