t»F INSECTS IN GENERAL. 313 



the country like an army, deflroy every green fhrub and 

 pile of grafs ; and their devallatiun has not caafed, when 

 they are i'ucceeded by other I'warms, that prefs upon their 

 rear, devouring the tender branches and llalks of plants, 

 which their forerunners had left. This dreadful viiita- 

 tion, which the language of Scripture has juftly defcribed 

 as a plague, does not terminate till the infe6ls have paf- 

 fed into their winged ftate, when they fly ofF, leaving the 

 whole furface of the earth naked and brown, as if fcorch- 

 ed by fire. 



Little inferior to the locufl in its deftruftive powers is 

 the Phal^na Grami?iis of Linncens^ which deftroys the 

 meadows in Siveden : There the peafants are employed 

 in cutting deep ditches in the furface to flop the progrefs 

 of the laivse as they pafs along : If the fv/arm be frnall, 

 this device has the deiired effect; but the numbers of 

 thcfe animals are often fo great, that they fill up the 

 trenches, and pafs along over the dead bodies that are bu- 

 ried in ihem. The formica facciiilifera is a native of the 

 JVe/i Indies, where it pervades the plantations of the fu- 

 gar-cane, entering the plants, and dcllroymg them when, 

 tiiey are tender : After long experience of its depreda- 

 tions, the inhabitants have never been able to invent a 

 method of deftroying this pernicious animal. In our own 

 country, the turnip ily, the butterfly, and the goofeber- 

 ry worm, have long committed depredations in the fields 

 and gardens, wliich no invention has hitherto been able to 

 prevent : Againii the lad of thefe aniir.als, indeed, the 

 watering the bufhes with an infuiionof tobacco, has been 

 found eflicacious, by killing the greater number in their 

 larva It ate. 



Vol. ill, Rr Another 



