LOCUSTID.E.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-ACRYDIUM. 



245 



flora which they came seemed unJuninibhed. On the 

 pinions of tlie blast they hastened on, millions on mil- 

 lions, mysterious alike in their origin and in the object 

 of their creation, whether formed, as one author (Paley) 

 supposes, to subsist Ai the common bounties of nature, 

 or as a part of the primeval curse. . . . Their 

 ajiiiroach is visible for a long distance, and by the 

 unpractised eye cannot well be distinguished from a 

 tilmy cloud or thin column of smoke, varying its wreaths 

 into every shape and convolution ; but the warning of 

 their advance very little precedes their arrival. Smoky 

 fires are lighted, and every mode of alarm, by noise 

 and gesture, is speedily resorted to by the persons 

 threatened with their visit, yet often with no effect. 

 On my first journey in South Africa, in the months 

 of December and January, I saw many more locust 

 flights than on the present (October). In one or two 

 instances the soil was so entirely covered by these 

 insects, that the waggons and oxen crushed hundreds 

 in their progress, and for several successive days we 

 noticed their cloudy masses, either on the horizon or 

 passing over our heads." Mr. M. noticed a bird which 

 is the unintermittiug persecutor of the locust, and 

 which followed the swarms in great numbers, seeming 

 to have been created as a check on their ravages. 



" The largest African locust is about four inches in 

 length, and one inch in diameter ; he has the most 

 voracious appetite of any insect in the world, and 

 devours grass, grain, the leaves of trees, and every 

 green thing with indiscriminate and merciless avidity. 

 They go forth by bands or flights, and each flight is 

 said to have a king, which directs its movements with 

 great regularity. Locusts can fly only when their 

 wings are perfectly dry ; and when they rise they 

 always fly off before the wind, and fill the air like an 

 immense cloud of thick smoke. When the leader 

 alights upon the ground, all the flight follows his 

 example as fast as possible. They are at times so 

 numerous, that they may be said to cover the whole 

 face of the country ; then they devour every spear of 

 grass and grain, even eating it into the groimd, cutting 

 off all the leaves from the slirubs and trees, and some- 

 times all the bark from 'ender trees in a whole pro- 

 vince, and that too in a voiy short space of time. 



" The present African locusts are of the same race 

 of insects that are mentioned in the Bible as one of the 

 plagues sent upon the land of Egypt by the Almighty; 

 they have always been considered in the countries 

 where they usually commit ravages as a scourge from 

 heaven, and as a punishment for the sins of the people. 

 The locust has been described as being produced by 

 some unknown physical cause, different from the ordi- 

 nary mode of animal production. This is a mistake : 

 the female, a little before the flights disappear for the 

 season, tlirusts her hinder part into the surface of the 

 ground up to her wings, first having found a suitable 

 spot of caith for that purpose ; here she forms a cell 

 in shape like tliat made by the bee, but from one to 

 three inclios in depth, and one to two inches in dia- 

 meter. Having made the sides of the cell strong by 

 means of a glutinous matter which she has the power 

 of producing, she deposits her eggs, which are blackish, 

 and so small as to be scarcely distinguishable with the 



naked eye ; each cell is filled full, and contains an 

 immense number of eggs ; she then seals it over care- 

 fully with the same kind of glutinous matter of which 

 the inside of the cell is formed, and covering it over 

 with earth, ate leaves it to be hatched out by the heat 

 of the sun in due time, which generally happens in the 

 month of January. The eggs in one cell alone pro- 

 duce a host of locusts, amounting to near a hundred. 

 V/hen the locust is hatched, he crawls out of the earth 

 a little wonn, of a light-brown colour, and whole cella 

 of them are said to hatch about the same time. This 

 host of worms creep forth from the ground and com- 

 mence their march, all going one course, generally 

 towards the north or west, devouring everything green 

 that comes in their way, and leaving behind them a 

 dismal scene of desolation. These reptiles grow so 

 rapidly, that within the space of one week they are 

 prepared for their transformation, when they climb up 

 a stout spear of grass or a twig, attach their skin fast 

 to it, and by a sudden effort burst the skin asunder at 

 its head, and come forth a four-winged insect with six , 

 legs. They remain a short time in the sun to dry 

 themselves and their wings before they attempt flying, 

 which they commence by trying separately to fly a short 

 distance at a time, and continue fluttering and skipping 

 like grasshoppers for two or three days ; next they set 

 oft' in a body on the wing, and fly from five miles to one 

 hundred without stopping, just as the country seems to 

 please their taste, and then they go on as I have before 

 described." 



Luigi Mayer mentions that the Arabs in Egypt are 

 very fond of locusts, which they broil. He adds, that 

 occasionally considerable flights of them are brought 

 even to Cairo by the winds blowing from the desert. 



M. Lucas, in the Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., second ser., vol. 

 ix., p. 379, refers to the (Edipoda cniciala as abundant 

 in Algeria. When going from Medeah to Boghar he 

 found this species in banks of great extent, layer 

 upon layer. In that neighbourhood it did great 

 damage, and would have done more, he adds, had not 

 General de I'Admirault ordered the French troops to 

 be engaged exclusively in destroying this voracious 

 insect. When it has eaten up all the grass, it attacks 

 the leaves of the trees. 



Tlie Acrydium fcmtir-rnbrum of Harris is a destruc- 

 tive locust in some parts of the United States. 



The figure, Plate 5, fig. 6, shows (Edipoda caniles- 

 cens (Aa-ydium on Plate) with its wings expanded, 

 those blue wings which charm so many children in the 

 south of Europe on the sunny slopes of hills. 



Mr. Squier, who was formerly charge d'affaires of 

 the United States to the republics of Central America, 

 tells us that the insect most dreaded in Honduras, and 

 indeed over all Central America, is the Langusta or 

 Chapulin, a species of grasshopper which at intervals 

 ravages the country. This pest passes from one end 

 of the country to the other " in vast columns of many 

 millions, literally darkening the air, and destroying every 

 green thing in their course. These des-tructive insects 

 "make their first appearance as Saltoncs of diminutive 

 size," when their bodies are red and wingless. They 

 then swarm over the ground like ants. The natives of 

 Honduras at this time kill great numbers of them by 



