Chap. 32.] 
THE GEASSHOPPER. 
31 
is the belief also that there is nothing more baneful to the 
scorpion and the^tellio/^ than to dip them in oil. This last 
animal is also dangerous to all other creatures, except those 
which, like itself, are destitute of blood : in figure it strongly 
resembles the common lizard. Tor the most part, also, 
the scorpion does no injury to any animal which is bloodless. 
Some writers, too, are of opinion that the scorpion devours its 
offspring, and that the one among the young which is the most 
adroit avails itself of its sole mode of escape, by placing itself 
on the back of the mother, and thus finding a place Avhere it 
is in safety from the tail and the sting. The one that thus 
escapes, they say, becomes the avenger of the rest, and at last, 
taking advantage of its elevated position, puts its parents to 
death. The scorpion produces eleven at a birth. 
CHAP. 31. (26.) — THE STELLIO. 
The stellio^''' has in some measure the same nature as the 
chameleon, as it lives upon nothing but dew, and such spiders'^^ 
as it may happen to find. 
CHAP. 32. THE GEASSHOPPEE : THAT IT HAS NEITHEE MOUTH 
NOE OUTLET EOE EOOI). 
The cicada^^ also lives in a similar manner, and is divided 
into two kinds. The smaller kind are born the first and die 
the last, and are without a voice. The others are of the flying 
kind, and have a note ; there are two sorts, those known as 
acJietce, and the smaller ones called tettigonia : these last have 
the loudest voice. In both of these last-mentioned kinds, it is 
the male that sings, while the female is silent. There are na- 
tions in the east that feed upon these insects, the Parthians 
^6 The starred or spotted lizard. 
^"^ The stellio of the Eomans is the " ascalabos or ascalabotes " of 
the Greeks, the lizard into which Ascalahus was changed by Ceres : see 
Ovid, Met. B. v. 1. 450, et seq. Pliny also mentions this in B. xxix. c. 4, 
though he speaks of some difference in their appearance. It is a species 
of gecko, the tarentola of Italy, the tarente of Provence, and the geckotta, 
probably, of Lacepede. The gecko, Cuvier says, is not venomous ; but it 
causes small blisters to rise on the skin when it walks over it, the result, 
probably, of the extreme sharpness of its nails. 
98 See c. 28 of this Book, and B. viii. c. 95 ; B. xxx. c. 27. 
9^ A general name for the grasshopper. Cuvier remarks, that Pliny is 
less clear on this subject than Aristotlej the author from whom he "has 
borrowed. 
