■INSECTS. Aorydium. 
Loccstid.e. 
245 
from which they came seemed undiminished. On the 
pinions of the blast they hastened on, millions on mil- 
lions, mysterious alike in their origin and in the object 
of their creation, whether formed, as one author (Paley) 
supposes, to subsist on the common bounties of nature, 
or as a part of the primeval curse. . . . Their 
approach is visible for a long distance, and by the 
unpractised eye cannot well be distinguished from a 
filmy cloud or thin column of smoke, varying its wreaths 
into every shape and convolution ; but the warning of 
their advance very little precedes their arrival. Smoky 
fires are lighted, and every mode of alarm, by noise 
and gesture, is speedily resorted to by the persons 
threatened with their visit, 3 'et often with no effect. 
On my first journey in South Africa, in the months 
of December and January, I saw many more locust 
flights than on the present (October). In one or two 
instances the soil was so entirely covered by these 
insects, that the waggons and oxen crushed hundreds 
in their progress, and for several successive days we 
noticed their cloudy masses, either on the horizon or 
passing over our heads.” Mr. M. noticed a bird which 
is the unintermitting persecutor of the locust, and 
which followed the swarms in great numbers, seeming 
to have been created as a check on their ravages. 
“ The largest African locust is about four inches in 
length, and one inch in diameter ; he has the most 
voracious appetite of any insect in the world, and 
devours grass, grain, the leaves of trees, and every 
green thing with indiscriminate and merciless avidity. 
They go forth by bands or flights, and each flight is 
said to have a king, which directs its movements with 
great regularity. Locusts can fly only when their 
wings are perfectly dry ; and when they rise they 
always fly off before the wind, and fill the air like an 
immense cloud of thick smoke. When the leader 
alights upon the ground, all the flight follows his 
example as fast as possible. They are at times so 
numerous, that they may be said to cover the whole 
face of the country ; then they devour every spear of 
grass and grain, even eating it into the ground, cutting 
off all the leaves from the shrubs and trees, and some- 
times all the bark from tender trees in a whole pro- 
vince, and that too in a very short space of time. 
“ The present African locusts are of the same race 
of insects that are mentioned in the Bible as one of the 
plagues sent upon the land of Egypt by the Almighty ; 
they have always been considered in the countries 
where they usually commit ravages as a scourge from 
heaven, and as a punishment for the sins of the people. 
The locust has been described as being produced by 
some unknown physical cause, different from the ordi- 
nary mode of animal production. This is a mistake ; 
the female, a little before the flights disappear for the 
season, thrusts her hinder part into the surface of the 
ground up to her wings, first having found a suitable 
spot of earth for that purpose ; here she forms a cell 
in shape like that made by the bee, but from one to 
three inches in depth, and one to two inches in dia- 
meter. Having made the sides of the cell strong by 
means of a glutinous matter which she has the power 
of producing, she deposits her eggs, which are blackish, 
and so small as to be scarcely distinguishable with the 
naked eye ; each cell is filled full, and contains an 
immense number of eggs ; she then seals it over care- 
fully with the same kind of glutinous matter of which 
the inside pf the cell is formed, and covering it over 
with earth, she leaves it to be hatched out by the heat 
of the sun in due time, which generally happens in the 
month of January. The eggs in one cell alone pro- 
duce a host of locusts, amounting to near a hundred. 
When the locust is hatched, he crawls out of the earth 
a little worm, of a light-brown colour, and whole cells 
of them are said to hatch about the same time. This 
host of worms creep forth from the ground and com- 
mence their march, all going one course, generally 
towards the north or west, devouring everything green 
that comes in their way, and leaving behind them a 
dismal scene of desolation. These reptiles grow so 
rapidl}', that within the space of one week they are 
prepared for their transformation, when they climb up 
a stout spear of grass or a twig, attach their skin fast 
to it, and by a sudden effort burst the skin asunder at 
its head, and come forth a four-winged insect with six 
legs. They remain a short time in the sun to dry 
themselves and their wings before they attempt flying, 
which they commence by trying separately to fly a short 
distance at a time, and continue fluttering and skipping 
like grasshoppers for twm or three days ; next they set 
off in a body on the wing, and fly from five miles to one 
hundred without stopping, just as the country seems to 
please their taste, and then they go on as I have before 
described.” 
Luigi Mayer mentions that the Arabs in Egypt are 
very fond of locusts, which they broil. He adds, that 
occasionally considerable flights of them are brought 
even to Cairo by the winds blowing from the desert. 
M. Jjucas, in the Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., second ser., vol. 
ix., p. 379, refers to the CEdipoda cruciata as abundant 
in Algeria. When going from Medeah to Boghar he 
found this species in hanks of great extent, layer 
upon layer. In that neighbourhood it did great 
damage, and would have done more, he adds, had not 
General de TAdmirault ordered the French troops to 
be engaged exclusively in destroying this voracious 
insect. When it has eaten up all the grass, it attacks 
the leaves of the trees. 
The Acrydium femiir-rubrum of Harris is a destruc- 
tive locust in some parts of the United States. 
The figure, Plate 5, fig. 6 , shows CEdipoda coorules- 
cens {Acrydium on Plate) with its wings expanded, 
those blue wings which charm so many children in the 
south of Europe on the sunny slopes of hills. 
Mr. Squier, who was formerly charge d'affaires of 
the United States to the republics of Central America, 
tells us that the insect most dreaded in Honduras, and 
indeed over all Central America, is the Langosta or 
Chapulin^ a species of grasshopper which at intervals 
ravages the country. This pest passes from one end 
of the country to the other “ in vast columns of many 
millions, literally darkening the air, and destroying every 
green thing in their course. These destructive insects 
“ make their first appearance as Saltones of diminutive 
size,” when their bodies are red and wingless. They 
then swarm over the ground like ants. The natives of 
Honduras at this time kill great numbers of them by 
