Chap. 35.] 
LOCUSTS. 
35 
them, and they none of them have a tail,^° with the exception 
of the scorpion ; this, too, is the only one among them that has 
arms, together with a sting in the tail. As to the rest of the 
insects, some of them have the sting in the month, the gad-fly 
for instance, or the tabanus," as some persons choose to call 
it : the same is the case, too, with the gnat and some kinds of 
flies. All these insects have their stings situate in the mouth 
instead of a tongue ; but in some the sting is not pointed, 
being formed not for pricking, but for the purpose of suction : 
this is the case more especially with flies, in which it is clear 
that the tongue is nothing more than a tube. These insects, 
too, have no teeth. Others, again, have little horns pro- 
truding in front of the eyes, but without any power in them ; 
the butterfly, for instance. Some insects are destitute of wings, 
such as the scolopendra, for instance. 
CKAP. 35. LOCUSTS. 
Those insects which have feet, move sideways. Some of 
them have the hind feet longer than the fore ones, and curving 
outwards, the locust, for example. 
(29.) These creatures lay their eggs in large masses, in the 
autumn, thrusting the end of the tail into holes which they 
form in the ground. These eggs remain underground 
throughout the winter, and in the ensuing year, at the close 
of spring, small locusts issue from them, of a black colour, and 
crawling along without legs^^ and wings. Hence it is that a 
wet spring destroys their eggs, while, if it is dry, they mul- 
tiply in great abundance. Some persons maintain that they 
breed twice a year, and die the same number of times ; that 
they bring forth at the rising^ of the Vergiliae, and die at 
the rising of the Dog -star, after which others spring up in 
Cuvier remarks, that the panorpis lias a tail very like that of the scor- 
pion ; and that the ephemera, the ichneumons and others, hare tails also. 
Aristotle, in the corresponding place, only says that the insects do not use 
the tail to direct their flight. 
21 These are merely the feelers of the jaws. 
22 Not instead of, but in addition to, the tongue, by the aid of which 
they suck. 
23 Evidently meaning the trunk. 
24 See B. xxix. c. 39. 
25 It is not true that the young locusts are destitute of feet. 
26 7th May. 27 igth July. 
B 2 
