INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 191 



primary wings, which resembles that Greek letter. This 

 creature affords a pregnant instance of the power of 

 Providence to let loose an animal to the work of destruc- 

 tion and punishment. Though common with us, it is 

 seldom the cause of more than trivial injury ; but in the 

 year 1735 it was so incredibly multiplied in France as 

 to infest the whole country. On the great roads, where- 

 ever you cast your eyes, you might see vast numbers tra- 

 versing them in all directions to pass from field to field ; 

 but their ravages were particularly felt in the kitchen- 

 gardens, where they devoured every thing, whether pulse 

 or pot-herbs, so that nothing was left besides the stalks 

 and veins of the leaves. The credulous multitude thought 

 they were poisonous, report affirming that in some in- 

 stances the eating of them had been followed by fatal 

 effects. In consequence of this alarming idea, herbs 

 were banished for several weeks from the soups of Paris. 

 Fortunately these destroyers did not meddle with the 

 corn, or famine would have followed in their train. 

 Reaumur has proved that a single pair of these insects 

 might in one season produce 80,000; so that, were the 

 friendly Ichneumons removed, to which the mercy of 

 Heaven has given it in charge to keep their numbers 

 within due limits, we should no longer enjoy the comfort 

 of vegetables with our animal food, and probably soon 

 become the prey of scorbutic diseases 3 . — I must not 

 overlook that singular animal the mole-cricket, (Gryllo- 

 talpa vulgaris, Latr.) which is a terrible devastator of 

 the produce of the kitchen-garden. It burrows under 

 ground, and devouring the roots of plants thus occa- 

 sions them to wither, and even gets into hot-beds. It 

 ? Reaum. ii. 337. 



