INSECTS 



Scorpion. Common Locust. Cautharis, or Blister Beetle. 



The Simulus Polyphemus, or King Crab, is found in the neighborhood of the Molluccas, and on 

 the coast of America. It sometimes attains the length of two feet. Its legs are very short; the 

 anterior apparently conveying food to the mouth, and the posterior adapted to respiration. 



The House Cricket greatly resembles the Grasshopper in shape, voice, leaping, and method of 

 propagation. Its color is of a uniform rusty brown. It lives in the crevices about the fire-place, the 

 smallest serving it for shelter ; and where it once lodges, it is sure to propagate. These creatures 

 ohirp the year round, chiefly during the night, when they emerge from their holes. They are om- 

 nivorous, as well as very voracious, feeding on meat, flour, bread, and especially sugar. They have 

 also a great propensity for liquids, and are often found drowned in milk vessels. 



Dragon Flies are of several species, all which, however, agree in their main characteristics. The 

 largest are from two to three inches long. The body is divided into eleven rings ; the tail is forked ; 

 their eyes are large, horny, and transparent ; their four wings are large and transparent, and always 

 lie flat while they are at rest ; their colors are varied and brilliant — green, blue, crimson, scarlet, 

 white, and black. 



They are produced from eggs dropped in the water, and the larvae are water worms, with six feet, 

 which, from their voracity, have been called the crocodiles of water insects. This voracity marks 

 also the perfected animal, which has been seen to devour three times its own bulk in a single hour. 

 It preys on all kinds of insects, from the smallest up to the wasp, hornet, and butterfly. 



The Locust, which, from immemorial time, has been a terrific scourge alike of Asia, Africa, and 

 Europe, is called the " Great Brown Locust," and is supposed to have originated in Africa. It is 

 about three inches long, and has two horns, or feelers, an inch in length. The head and horns are 

 brownish, while about the mouth and on the inside of the larger legs it is blue, The shield cover- 

 ing the back is greenish; the upper side purple. The upper wings are brown, with small dusky 

 spots, with a large one at the tips ; the under wings are more transparent, and of a light brown, 

 tinctured with green, but with a dark cloud of spots near the tips. Such is the animal so truly ter- 

 rible in its birth-place, the East, as often to be employed in Scripture, as an image to portray what, 

 is most destructive and desolating. But it has often visited Europe also, especially its southern sec- 

 tions, and its ravages have there, too, been most appalling. 



When these creatures set forth on an expedition, they go in multitudes, literally numberless, with 

 a leader at their head, whose guidance they follow. When they alight upon a district, they com- 

 pletely devour every green thing, leaving the trees above mere skeletons, and the ground beneath 

 a naked waste. In this way a famine is often produced, especially in Europe, where vegetation once 

 destroyed, cannot, as in tropic climes, renew itself till the coming of another spring. No animal on 

 earth multiplies so rapidly as this, if the sun be warm, and the soil holding its eggs be dry. 



Still more formidable, however, th*m even the great Brown Locust, is the great West India 

 Locust, which is about as large as the barrel of a goose-cpuill, with a body six or seven inches long, 

 and divided into nine or ten joints. It has two small eyes, standing out like crabs' eyes, and two 

 feelers, like long hairs. The whole body is studded with excrescences, not much bigger than pin- 

 points; is of a roundish shape, decreasing in circumference toward the tail, which is divided into 

 two horns. Between these is a sheath, containing a small, dangerous sting, which is infallibly 

 darted into any person who chances to touch this insect. The wound produces a universal shiver- 

 ing and trembling; which, however, may soon be stopped by rubbing it with palm oil. 

 (356) 



