IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 299 
hatched to march and glean after them. Waving lived near a month in 
this manner, they arrived at their full growth, and threw off their nympha- 
state by casting their outward skin. To prepare themselves for this change, 
they clung by their hinder feet to some bush, twig, or corner of a stone ; 
and immediately, by using an undulating motion, their heads would first 
break out, and then the rest of their bodies. The whole transformation 
was performed in seven or eight minutes, after which they lay for a small 
time in a torpid and seemingly in a languishing condition ; but as soon as 
the sun and the air had hardened their wings, by drying up the moisture 
that remained upon them after casting their sloughs, they reassumed their 
former yoracity, with an addition of strength and agility. Yet they con- 
tinued not long in this state before they were entirely dispersed.” The 
species Dr, Shaw here speaks of is probably not the Locusta migratoria. 
The old Arabian fable, that they are directed in their flights by a leader 
or king?, has been adopted, but I think without sufficient reason, by several 
travellers. Thus Benjamin Bullivant, in his ‘“ Observations on the 
Natural History of New England?,” says that “the locusts have a kind of 
regimental discipline, and as it were some commanders, which show greater 
and more splendid wings than the common ones, and arise first when pur- 
sued by the fowls or the feet of the traveller, as I have often seriously re- 
marked.” And in like terms Jackson observes, that “they have a govern- 
ment amongst themselves similar to that of the bees and ants; and when 
the (Sultan Jerraad) king of the locusts rises, the whole body follow him, 
not one solitary strageler being left behind.” * But that locusts have leaders, 
like the bees or ants, distinguished from the rest by the size and splendour 
of their wings, is a circumstance that has not yet been established by any 
satisfactory evidence; indeed, very strong reasons may be urged against it. 
The nations of bees and ants, it must be observed, are housed together in 
one nest or hive, the whole population of which is originally derived from 
one common mother, and the leaders of the swarms in each are the females. 
But the armies of locusts, though they herd together, travel together, and 
feed together, consist of an infinity of separate families, all derived from 
different mothers, who have laid their eggs in separate cells or houses in 
the earth ; so that there is little or no analogy between the societies of 
locusts and those of bees and ants; and this pretended sultan is something 
quite different from the queen bee or the female ants. It follows, there- 
fore, that as the locusts have no common mother, like the bees, to lead 
their swarms, there is no one that nature, by a different organisation and 
ampler dimensions, and a more august form, has destined to this high 
office. The only question remaining is, whether one be elected from the 
rest by common consent as their leader, or whether their instinct impels 
them to follow the first that takes flight or alights. This last is the 
learned Bochart’s opinion, and seems much the most reasonable. The 
absurdity of the other supposition, that an election is made, will appear 
from such queries as these, at which you may smile. Who are the elec- 
tors? Are the myriads of millions all consulted, or is the elective fran- 
chise contined to a few? Who holds the courts and takes the votes ? 
Who casts them up and declares the result? When is the election made? 
The larvae appear to be as much under government as the perfect insect. 
1 Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. 4. ¢. 2. 460, 2 In Philos. Trans. for 1698. 
5 Jackson’s Marocco. 51. + Bechart, Hierozoic. ubi suprd. 
