[244]Fabr.Ent. Syst. Em.iv. 276. 22. Latr.Hist. Nat.&c. xiv. 283.Leipz. Zeit.Jul. 5, 1813, quoted in Germar'sMag. der Ent.ii. 185.[245]It is by no means clear that theŒstrusof modern entomologists is synonymous with the insects which the Greeks distinguish by that name. Aristotle not only describes these asblood-suckers(Hist. Animal.l. viii. c. 11.) but also as furnished with astrong proboscis(l. iv. c. 7.). He observes likewise that they are produced from an animal inhabiting thewaters, in the vicinity of which they most abound (l. viii. c. 7.). And Ælian (Hist.l. vi. c. 38.) gives nearly the same account. Comparing the Œstrus with the Myops (synonymous perhaps withTabanus, Latr., except that Aristotle affirms that its larvæ live in wood, l. v. c. 19,) he says, the Œstrus for a fly is one of the largest; it has a stiff and large sting, (meaning a proboscis,) and emits a certain humming and harsh sound—but the Myops is like the Cynomyia—it hums more loudly than the Œstrus, though it has a smaller sting.These characters and circumstances do not at all agree with the modern Œstrus, which, so far from being a blood-sucker furnished with a strong proboscis, has scarcely any mouth. It shuns also the vicinity of water, to which our cattle generally fly as a refuge from it. It seems more probable that the Œstrus of Greece was related to Bruce'sZimb, represented in his figure with a long proboscis, which makes its appearance in the neighbourhood of rivers, and belongs to theTabanidæ. For further information the reader should consult Mr. W. S. MacLeay's learned paper on the insect calledOistrosandAsilusby the ancients.Linn. Trans.xiv. 353—.[246]Bruce'sTravels, 8vo. ii. 315.[247]Heb. בעל זבוב literally "Lord-Fly." See 2 Kings, i. 2; and Bochart.Hierozoic.ps. ii. l. 4. c. 9. p. 490.[248]Burn-CoworOx, from βους bos, and πρηθω inflammo. M. Latreille translates itCrève-bœuf, but improperly.[249]Annales du Muséum.—XeAnn. Noxi. p. 129.[250]Observations de plusieurs Singularités, &c.l. i. c. 45. p. 73 of the Edition in Sir Joseph Banks's Library.[251]Hist. Nat.l. xxix. c. 4.[252]See Curtis,Brit. Ent.t. 142.[253]Mr. Curtis (Brit. Ent.t. 106) under the name ofŒstrus pictushas figured a fine species of Gad-fly taken in the New Forest, which he conjectures may be bred from the Deer. It may probably be one of the species here alluded to.[254]Reaum. v. 69.Dictionnaire de Trevoux, articleCerf.[255]For the account of the Œstrus, of the deer, see Reaum. v. 67-77.[256]Linn.Lach. Lapp.ii. 45. In the passage here referred to, Linné speaks of two species of Œstrus, though the mode of expression indicates that he considered them as the same. One wasŒ. nasalisfrom which they freed themselves by snorting, &c., the otherŒ. Tarandiwhich formed the pustules in their backs. InSyst. Nat.969. 3. he strangely observes under the former species, "Habitat in equorumfauce, per nares intrans!" confounding probablyŒ. veterinusof Mr. Clark with the trueŒ. nasalis.[257]Lach. Lapp.i. 280.[258]Flor. Lapp.79.[259]Linn.Flor. Lapp.379.[260]Mr. Kittoe.[261]PlateV.Fig. 3.[262]Melittophagus, Mus. Kirby. SeeMon. Ap. Angl.ii. 168. I copy the following memorandum respectingM. Melittæfrom my common-place-book, May 7, 1812. On the flowers of Ficaria, Taraxacum and Bellis, I found a great number of this insect, which seemed extremely restless, running here and there over the flowers, and over each other, with great swiftness mounting the anthers, and sometimes lifting themselves up above them, as if looking for something. One or two of them leaped upon my hand. Near one of these flowers I found a smallAndrenaorHalictus, upon which some of these creatures were busy sucking the poor animal, so that it seemed unable to fly away. When disclosed from the egg, I imagine they get on the top of these flowers to attach themselves to any of theAndrenidæthat may alight on them, or come sufficiently near for them to leap on it.—K.[263]Latreille,Hist. des Fourmis, 307-20.[264]See above, p.34.[265]NaturforscherStk. xvi. 74.[266]Quoted from Campbell'sTravels in South Africa, in theQuarterly Review for July1815. 315.[267]Huber.Pref.xi-xiii.[268]De Geer, ii. 83.[269]Considered by Mr. Clark as a new genus, which he has namedCuterebra, and of which he has described three species.Essay on the Bots of Horses, &c.p.63.t.2.f.24-29.[270]Linn. Trans.ix. 156-61.[271]Germar'sMag. der Ent.i. 1-10. Mr. Stephens, in hisIllustrations of British Entomology(No. I. p. 4.), very judiciously asks, "May not these herbivorous larvæ have been the principal cause of the mischief to the wheat, while those of theZabruscontributed rather to lessen their numbers than to destroy the corn." But this query does not account for their being found, when in the perfect state, attacking the ear. I have seen cognate beetles devouring the seeds of umbelliferous plants.[272]Act. Stockh.1778. 3. n. 11. and 4. n. 4. Marsham inLinn. Trans.ii. 79.[273]Linn. Trans.ii. 76-80.[274]Encyclopæd. Britann.viii. 480-95.[275]Young'sAnnals of Agriculture, xi. 471.[276]Tipula Tritici, K., belonging to Latreille's genusCecidomyia. (See above, p. 28.notea.) Marsham and Kirby inLinn. Trans.iii. 242-5. iv. 225-39. v. 96-110.[277]Oliv. ii. n. 19. 3-4.[278]Curculio testaceus,Ent. Brit.[279]Marsham inLinn. Trans.ii. 80. De Geer notices the injury done by this fly to rye, and observes that before it had been attributed to frost. ii. 68.[280]Act. Stockh.1750. 128. Reaum. ii. 480, &c.[281]This insect was taken in maize by Mr. Sparshall of Norwich.[282]Smith's Abbott'sInsects of Georgia, 191.[283]I say this upon the authority of Mr. Wolnough of Hollesley (late of Boyton) in Suffolk, an intelligent agriculturist, and a most acute and accurate observer of nature.[284]Reaum. vi. 566.[285]Kalm'sTravels, i. 173.[286]Amoreux, 288.[287]I have raised plants from this seed, which appear from the foliage to belong either toPhaseolusorDolichos.[288]Markwick, Marsham and Lehmann inLinn. Trans.vi. 142-. and Kirby in ditto, ix. 37. 42. n. 19. 23.[289]PlateXVII.Fig.12.[290]Philos. Trans.1741. 581.[291]De Geer, ii. 341.Amœn. Acad.iii. 355.[292]Farmer's Mag.iii. 487.[293]Pallas'sTravels in South Russia, i. 30.[294]PlateXVIII.Fig.4.[295]Marsham inCommunications to the Board of Agriculture, iv. 412.Platexviii.fig. 4. andLinn. Trans.ix. 60.[296]PlateXXIV.Fig.3.[297]The wire-worm is particularly destructive for a few years in gardens recently converted from pasture ground. In the Botanic Garden at Hull thus circumstanced a great proportion of the annuals sown in 1813 were destroyed by it. A very simple and effectual remedy in such cases was mentioned to me by Sir Joseph Banks. He recommended that slices of potato stuck upon skewers should be buried near the seeds sown, examined every day, and the wire-worms which collect upon them in great numbers destroyed.This plan of decoying destructive animals from our crops by offering them more tempting food, is excellent, and deserves to be pursued in other instances. It was very successfully employed in 1813 by J. M. Rodwell, Esq. of Barham Hall near Ipswich, one of the most skilful and best informed agriculturists in the county of Suffolk, to preserve some of his wheat-fields from the ravages of a small gray slug, which threatened to demolish the plant. Having heard that turnips had been used with success to entice the slugs from wheat, he caused a sufficient quantity to dress eight acres to be got together; and then, the tops being divided and the apples sliced, he directed the pieces to be laid separately, dressing two stetches with them and omitting two alternately, till the whole field of eight acres was gone over. On the following morning he employed two women to examine and free from the slugs, which they did into a measure, the tops and slices; and when cleared they were laid upon those stetches that had been omitted the day before. It was observed invariably, that in the stetches dressed with the turnips no slugs were to be found upon the wheat or crawling upon the land, though they abounded upon the turnips; while on the undressed stetches they were to be seen in great numbers both on the wheat and on the land. The quantity of slugs thus collected was near a bushel.—Mr. Rodwell is persuaded that by this plan he saved his wheat from essential injury.[298]Reaum. v. 11.[299]Two species are confounded under the appellation ofthe grub, the larvæ namely ofTipula oleraceaandcornicina, which last is very injurious, though not equally with the first. In the rich district ofSunk Islandin Holderness, in the spring of 1813, hundreds of acres of pasture have been entirely destroyed by them, being rendered as completely brown as if they had suffered a three months drought, and destitute of all vegetation except that of a few thistles. A square foot of the dead turf being dug up, 210 grubs were counted in it! and, what furnishes a striking proof of the prolific powers of these insects, the next year it was difficult to find a single one.[300]Stickney'sObservations on the Grub.[301]De Geer, i. 487.[302]I owe this information to the late Robinson Kittoe, Esq.[303]Castle inPhilos. Trans.xxx. 346.[304]Browne'sCivil and Nat. Hist. of Jamaica, 430.[305]Essai sur la Géographie des Plantes, 136.[306]M'Kinnen, 171. Browneubi supr.Merian,Ins. Sur.10.[307]Smith's Abbott'sInsects of Georgia, 199.[308]Illiger,Mag.i. 256.[309]The farmers would do well to change the name of this insect fromturnip-flytoturnip-flea, since from its diminutive size and activity in leaping the latter name is much the most proper. The term,the fly, might with propriety be restricted to the Hop-aphis.[310]Young'sAnnals of Agriculture, vii. 102.[311]Marshall inPhilos. Trans.lxxiii. 1783.[312]See above, p.167-168.[313]Swamm. ii. 81.col.b.—Gyllenhal in describing the last-named species, so common on the flowers of siliquose plants (Insecta Suecica, iii. 142.), asks if hisR. sulcicollis(C. Pleurostigma, E. B.), which agrees with it in most respects, except in having toothed thighs, be not the other sex? This query I can solve in the negative, having taken the sexes ofR. assimilisin coitu, which do not differ, save that the male has a somewhat shorter rostrum.[314]Spence'sObservations on the Disease in Turnips called Fingers and Toes.Hull 1812. 8vo.[315]Reaum. ii. 471.[316]See above, p.29.[317]De Geer, ii. 440. In the summer of 1826 when at Brussels, I observed that delicious vegetable of thecabbagetribe so largely cultivated there under the name ofJets de choux, and which in England we callBrussels sprouts, to be materially injured in the later stages of its growth by the attacks of theturnip-flea, and other little beetles of the same genus (Haltica), which were so numerous and so universally prevalent, that I scarcely ever examined a full-grown plant from which a vast number might not have been collected. Some plants were almost black with them, the species most abundant being of a dark æneous tinge. They had not merely eroded the cuticle in various parts, so as to give the leaves a brown blistered appearance, but had also eaten them into large holes, at the margin of which I often saw them in the act of gnawing; and the stunted and unhealthy appearance of the plants sufficiently indicated the injurious effect of this interruption of the proper office of the sap. What was particularly remarkable, considering the locomotive powers of these insects, was that the young turnips, sown in August after the wheat and rye, close to acres of Brussels sprouts, (which all round Brussels are planted in the open fields among other crops,) infested by myriads of these insects, were not more eaten by them than they usually are in England, and produced good average crops. It would seem, agreeably to a fact already mentioned, (see Vol. I. 4th Edit. p. 389,) that they prefer the taste of leaves to which they have been accustomed, to younger plants of the same natural family; and hence perhaps the previous sowing of a crop of cabbage-plants in the corner of a field meant for turnips, might allure and keep there the great bulk of these insects present in the vicinity, until the turnips were out of danger.[318]Perhaps this fly is the same which Linné confounded withTachina Larvarum, which he says he had found in the roots of the cabbage (Syst. Nat.992. 78.) I say "confounded," because it is not likely that the same species should be parasitic in an insect, and also inhabit a vegetable.[319]In lately examining, however, some young garden peas and beans about four inches high, I observed the margins of the leaves to be gnawed into deep scollops by a little weevil (Sitona lineata), of which I found from two to eight on each pea and bean, and many in the act of eating. Not only were the larger leaves of every plant thus eroded, but in many cases the terminal young shoots and leaves were apparently irreparably injured. I have often noticed this and another of the short-snouted Curculios (S. tibialis) in great abundance in pea and bean fields, but was not aware till now that either of them was injurious to these plants. Probably both are so, but whether the crop is materially affected by them must be left to further inquiry.[320]Reaum. ii. 479.[321]Description ofS. Ceparum.—Cinereous, clothed with distant black hairs, proceeding, particularly on the thorax, from a black point. Legs nigrescent. Back of the abdomen of the male with an interrupted black vitta down the middle. Wings immaculate. Poisers and alulæ pale yellow. Length 3½ lines.[322]Barton inPhilos. Magaz.ix. 62.[323]Reaum. ii. 337.[324]Apis.**. c. 2. α. K.[325]Reaum. iv. 499.[326]Rai.Hist. Ins.Prolegom. xi.[327]This kind of misnomer frequently occurs in entomological authors.—Thus, for instance, theCurculio (Rynchites) Alliariæof Linné feeds upon the hawthorn, andCurculio (Cryptorhynchus) Lapathiupon the willow (Curtis inLinn. Trans.i. 86.); but asAlliariais common in hawthorn hedges, and docks often grow under willows, the mistake in question easily happened: when, however, such mistakes are discovered, theTrivial Nameought certainly to be altered.[328]I consider this insect as the type of a new subgenus (Phyllopertha, K. MS.), which connects those tribes ofMelolontha, F. that have a mesosternal prominence with those that have not. Of this subgenus I possess six species. It is clearly distinct fromAnisoplia, under which DeJean arranges it.[329]Wiener Verzeich.8vo. 29.[330]Fabricius seems to have regarded the saw-fly that feeds upon thesallow(Nematus Capreæ), not only as synonymous with that which feeds upon theosier, but also with our little assailant of thegooseberryandcurrant. Yet it is very evident from Reaumur's account, whose accuracy may be depended upon, that they are all distinct species. Fabricius's description of theflyagrees with the insect of the gooseberry, but that which he has given of thelarvabelongs to the animal inhabiting the sallow. Probably, confounding the two species, he described the imago from the insect of the former, and the larva (if he did not copy from Reaumur or Linné) from that of the latter. Linné was correct in regarding Reaumur's three insects as distinct species, though he appears to be mistaken in referring to him underN. flavus, as the saw-fly of the currant and gooseberry is not wholly yellow.[331]Peck'sNat. Hist. of the Slug-worm, 9.[332]Trost Kleiner Beytrag. 38.[333]Reaum. ii. 477.[334]On the Apple and Pear, 158. The beetle Mr. Knight alludes to is probably thePolydrosus oblongus, which answers his description, and is common on pear-trees.—In Holland, it is stated in a little tract on this subject (Verhandeling ten bewijze &c. doorF. H. van Berck. 8vo. Haarlem 1807), that the great destroyer of the blossoms of their apple- and pear-trees is the larva of another weevil,Anthonomus Pomorum, which from the name and Gyllenhal's addition to the habitat given by Linné—"quas destruit"—should seem to be injurious in Sweden also.[335]Reaum.ubi supr.475.[336]On Fruit Trees, 271.[337]On the Apple and Pear, 45.[338]Reaum. ii. 499.[339]Mr. Scales.[340]See Observations on this Insect in the 2nd volume of theHorticultural Society's Transactions, p. 25. By W. Spence.[341]Reaum. iv. 69.t.5.f.6, 7.[342]A solution of quick-lime is recommended in theGardener's Magazine for January1828, a periodical work which every friend of Horticulture ought to possess.[343]This Aphis is evidently the insect described in Illiger'sMagazin, i. 450. under the name ofA. lanigera, as having done great injury to the apple-trees in the neighbourhood of Bremen in 1801. That it is an Aphis and no Coccus is clear from itsoralrostrum and the wings of the male, of which Sir Joseph Banks possesses an admirable drawing by Mr. Bauer. On this Aphis see Forsyth, 265;Monthly Mag.xxxii. 320; and also for August 1811; and Sir Joseph Banks in theHorticultural Society's Transactions, ii. 162. Those Aphides that transpire a cottony excretion are now considered as belonging to a distinct genus, under the name ofMyzoxyla.[344]M. de la Hire in Reaum. ii. 478.[345]Dr. Smith Barton's Letter inPhilos. Magaz.xxii. 210. William Davy, Esq. American Consul of the Port of Hull, long resident in the United States, informed me that though he had abundance of peaches at his country-house, German Town near Philadelphia, he could never succeed with the nectarine, the fruit constantly falling off perforated by the grub of some insect.[346]Descr. of the I. of St. Helena, 147.[347]A mode of destroying this hurtful insect is given in a Number of that useful and interesting work, theGardener's Magazine, just quoted.[348]Reaum. ii. 505.[349]Ibid. ii. 507. and Hasselquist'sTravels in the Levant, 428.[350]That is "High and Low," Judges ix. 13.[351]SturmDeutschlands Fauna, i. 5.[352]Latreille,Hist. Nat.xi. 66. 331.[353]Host in Jacquin.Collect.iii. 297.[354]Pallas'sTravels in S. Russia, ii. 241.[355]Jacquin.Collect.ii. 97.[356]Deut. xxviii. 39.[357]Travels, ii. 6.[358]Collinson inPhilos. Trans.liv. x. 65.[359]Rösel, I. ii. 15.[360]Reaum. ii. 122.[361]Mouffet, 160.[362]Philos. Trans.xix. 741.[363]Reaum. i. 387. These larvæ were so extremely numerous in 1826 on the limes of theAllée Verteat Brussels, that many of the trees of that noble avenue, though of great age, were nearly deprived of their leaves, and afforded little of the shade which the unusual heat of the summer so urgently required. The moths which in autumn proceeded from them, when in motion towards night, swarmed like bees, and subsequently on the trunk of every tree might be seen scores of females depositing their down-covered patch of eggs. In theParkthey were also very abundant; and it may be safely asserted that if one half of the eggs deposited were to be hatched, in 1827 scarcely a leaf would remain in either of these favourite places of public resort. Happily, however, this calamity seems likely to be prevented. Of the vast number of patches of eggs which I saw on almost every tree in the park about the end of September, I could two months afterwards to my no small surprise, discover scarcely one, though the singularity of the fact made me examine closely. For their disappearance I have no doubt the inhabitants of Brussels are indebted to the tit-mouse (Parus), the tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris), and other small birds known to derive part of their food from the eggs of insects, and which abound in the park, where they may be often seen running up and down the trunks of the trees, at once providing their own food and rendering a service to man, which all his powers would be inadequate completely to effect.Reaumur (ii. 106) in certain seasons found these patches of eggs so numerous, that in theBois de Boulognethere was scarcely an oak, the under side of the branches of which were not covered by them for an extent of seven or eight feet. He informs us that the eggs are not hatched till the following spring.[364]Wiener Verzeich.8vo. 75.[365]CurtisBrit. Ent.t. 117.[366]De Geer, ii. 452.[367]Kalm'sTravels, ii. 7.[368]The same intelligent gentleman related to me, that a person having taken some land at Bahia in the Brazils, he was compelled by these ants, which were so numerous as to render every effort to destroy them ineffectual, to relinquish the occupation of it. Their nests were excavated to the astonishing depth of fourteen feet. MerianInsect. Sur.18. Smeathman onTermites, Phil. Trans.lxxi. 39. note 35.[369]Stedman, ii. 142.[370]Hist. Nat.l. xi. c. 12.[371]CurtisBrit. Ent.t. 60.[372]Lewin inLinn. Trans.iii. 1.—Curtis in do. i. 86.[373]CurtisBrit. Ent.t.104.[374]MacLeay inEdinburgh Philos. Journ.n. xxi. 123. CurtisBrit. Ent.t.43.[375]Wilhelm'sRecreations from Nat. Hist.quoted by LatreilleHist. Nat.xi. 194.[376]Reaum. ii. 502.[377]Bochart,Hierozoic.P. ii. l. iv. c. 5. 475.[378]Bochart,ubi supr.c. 6. 485.[379]Exod. x. 5. 14, 15.[380]Hist. Nat.l. xi. c. 29. A similar law was enacted in Lemnos, by which every one was compelled to bring a certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates. Plin.ibid.[381]Oros.contra Pag.l. v. c. 2.[382]Lesser,L.247. note 46.[383]Mouffet, 123.[384]Bingley, iii. 258.[385]Philos. Trans.1686.[386]Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, 233.[387]Philos. Trans.xlvi. 30.[388]Major Moor, author ofThe Narrative of Captain Little's Detachment,The Hindu Pantheon, &c.[389]Travels, i. 348.[390]Travels, &c. 257.[391]Southey'sThalaba, i. 171.[392]Genes. xvi. 12.[393]Jackson'sTravels in Marocco, 54.[394]See Bochart,Hierozoic. P. l. iv. c. 5. 474-5.[395]Southey'sThalaba, i. 169.[396]Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said—"And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle." ix. 9.[397]Joel ii. 2-10. 20.[398]Voyage to the Levant, 444.[399]Voyage to the Levant, p. 446-7.[400]See p.219.[401]Travels, 54.[402]Travels, i. 366.[403]Travels, 455.[404]Travels, 447.[405]Amœn. Acad.iii. 345.[406]Sparrman, i. 103. This insect, by Swedish entomologists, is supposed to be a species ofAnobium, F., (Ptinus, L.,) but the specimen preserved in the Linnean cabinet isSilpha roseaof Mr. Marsham (Cacidula pectoralis, Meg.). A small beetle of the first family ofCryptophagusof Major Gyllenhal swarms often in the ship biscuit, and may probably be the insect Sparrman here complains of under the name ofDermestes paniceus.[407]See above, p.172.[408]De Geer, v. 46. This insect appears nearly related to Mr. Marsham'sCorticaria pulla(E. B.i. 11. 14.Latridius porcatus, Herbst), if it be not the same insect.[409]Amœn. Acad.iii. 345.[410]This name has long been given to this insect, and the Characters of the genus were drawn by Mr. Curtis before the publication of Meigen's fifth volume (in which the genus is calledPiophila); it is therefore retained. See CurtisBrit. Ent. t.126.[411]Reaum. iii. 276.[412]Leeuwenh.Epist.99.[413]Ceylon, 307.[414]Voyage, &c. 72.[415]Williamson'sEast India Vade Mecum.[416]Calcutta, a Poem, 85.[417]Ptinus piceus, Marsh.[418]On examining ninety-two chests ofopium, part of the cargo saved from the Charlton, previously to reshipping them from Chittagong for China, thirteen were found to be full of white ants, which had almost wholly devoured the opium.Article from Chittagong, Nov.1812,in one of the Newspapers, July31, 1813.[419]Ptinus rubellus, Marsh.[420]Bibl. Nat.i. 125. b. 126. a.[421]Sir Geo. Staunton'sVoy.8vo. 189.[422]Kerr inPhilos. Trans.1781.[423]Reaum. iii. 266.[424]Ibid. 59.[425]Reaum. iii. 42.[426]Ibid. 257.[427]Amœn. Acad.iii. 346.[428]Kirby inLinn. Trans.v. 250.[429]Curculio lignarius, Marsh.Rhinosimus ruficollis, Latr.[430]The species of the genusDorcadionseparated fromLamiaare discovered to live upon the roots of grass.[431]Thelarvaof aCallidium(which Dr. Leach has discovered to beC. Bajulus) sometimes does material injury to the wood-work of the roofs of houses in London, piercing in every direction the fir-rafters, and, when arrived at the perfect state, making its way out even through sheets of lead one-sixth of an inch thick, when they happen to have been nailed upon the rafter in which it has assumed its final metamorphosis. I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks for a specimen of such a sheet of lead, which, though only eight inches long and four broad, is thus pierced with twelve oval holes, of some of which the longest diameter is a quarter of an inch! Mr. Charles Miller first discovered lead in the stomach of the larva of this insect.[432]P. 310.[433]See Kirby,ubi supr.253.—More than a hundred species of the Capricorn tribe, many of them nondescripts, were collected in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro by Captain Hancock, of the Foudroyant.[434]InLinn. Trans.x. 399.[435]Syst. Nat.565. 2.[436]Smith'sIntroduction to Botany, Pref. xv.[437]Afzelius inLinn. Trans.iv. 261.[438]Linn. Trans.x. 403.[439]Kirby,Mon. Ap. Ang.i. 152-194. Latreille,Gen.iv. 161—.[440]In order to ascertain how farpuresea water is essential to this insect, and consequently what danger exists of its being introduced into the woodwork of our docks and piers communicating with our salt-water rivers, as at Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Ipswich, &c., where it might be far more injurious than even on the coast, I have, since December 15th 1815, when Mr. Lutwidge was so kind as to furnish me with a piece of oak full of the insects in a living state, poured a not very strong solution of common salt over the wood, every other day, so as to keep the insects constantly wet. On examining it this day (Feb. 5th 1816) I found them alive; and, what seems to prove them in as good health as in their natural habitat, numbers have established themselves in a piece of fir-wood which I nailed to the oak, and have in this short interval, and in winter too, bored many cells in it.[441]See p.226.[442]Reaum. iii. 270.[443]SchrankEnum. Ins. Austr.513. 1058.[444]Horne'sIntrod. to Bibliography, i. 311.[445]It appears from Humboldt (Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 116.) that the destructive insects called by this name, areTermites.[446]Ulloa, i. 67.[447]Amœn. Acad.iii. 345.[448]Drury'sInsects, iii. Preface.[449]It is not its hardness that protects the teak, as the Asiatic Termites attack Lignum Vitæ, but probably some essential oil disagreeable to them with which it is impregnated. This is the more likely, since they will eat it when it is old and has been long exposed to the air.Tanninhas been conjectured to be the protecting substance, but erroneously, as leather of every kind is devoured by them. Williamson'sEast India Vade Mecum, ii. 56. It is its hardness probably that protects the iron-wood from the African Termites. Smeathman inPhilos. Trans.1781. 11. 47.[450]Japan, ii. 127.[451]Political Essay on New Spain, iv. 135.[452]This account of theTermitesis chiefly taken from Smeathman inPhilos. Trans.1781, and Percival'sCeylon, 307—.[453]Oriental Memoirs, i. 362.[454]Morning Herald, Dec. 31st, 1814.[455]The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a condition from the attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, had not the ship been firmly lashed together, it was thought she would have foundered on her voyage home.—The late Mr. Kittoe informed me that theDroguersorDraguers, a kind of lighter employed in the West Indies in collecting the sugar, sometimes so swarm with ants, of the common kind, that they have no other way of getting rid of these troublesome insects than by sinking the vessel in shallow water.[456]Luke x. 19.[457]Sparrman'sVoyage, i. 367.[458]TheCoprion,Cantharus, andHeliocantharusof the ancients was evidently this beetle, or one nearly related to it, which is described as rolling backwards large masses of dung, and attracted such general attention as to give rise to the proverbCantharus pilulam. It should seem from the name, derived from a word signifying an ass, that the Grecian beetle made its pills of asses' dung; and this is confirmed by a passage in one of the plays of Aristophanes, theIrene, where a beetle of this kind is introduced, on which one of the characters rides to heaven to petition Jupiter for peace. The play begins with one domestic desiring another to feed the Cantharus with some bread, who afterwards orders his companion to give him another kind of bread made ofasses'dung.[459]PlateXXII.Fig.4, 5.[460]See Latr.Gen.i. 275.[461]This property in the carrion insects may be turned to a good account by the comparative anatomist, who has only to flay the body of one of the smaller animals, anoint it with honey, and bury it in an ant-hill; and in a short time he will obtain a perfect skeleton, denudated of every fibril of muscle, though with the ligaments and cartilages untouched.[462]Gleditsch,Abhandlungen, iii. 200.[463]It is to be observed that in our cold climates, during the winter months, when excrement and putrescent animal matter are not so offensive, they are left to the action of the elements, insects being then torpid.[464]CurtisBrit. Ent. t.5.[465]Surely Mr. Marsham's name for this genus,Boletaria, is much more proper than that of Fabricius,Mycetophagus(Agaric-eater), since these insects seldom eat agarics.[466]Œcon. Nat. Amœn. Ac.ii. 50. Stillingfleet'sTracts, 122.
[244]Fabr.Ent. Syst. Em.iv. 276. 22. Latr.Hist. Nat.&c. xiv. 283.Leipz. Zeit.Jul. 5, 1813, quoted in Germar'sMag. der Ent.ii. 185.
[245]It is by no means clear that theŒstrusof modern entomologists is synonymous with the insects which the Greeks distinguish by that name. Aristotle not only describes these asblood-suckers(Hist. Animal.l. viii. c. 11.) but also as furnished with astrong proboscis(l. iv. c. 7.). He observes likewise that they are produced from an animal inhabiting thewaters, in the vicinity of which they most abound (l. viii. c. 7.). And Ælian (Hist.l. vi. c. 38.) gives nearly the same account. Comparing the Œstrus with the Myops (synonymous perhaps withTabanus, Latr., except that Aristotle affirms that its larvæ live in wood, l. v. c. 19,) he says, the Œstrus for a fly is one of the largest; it has a stiff and large sting, (meaning a proboscis,) and emits a certain humming and harsh sound—but the Myops is like the Cynomyia—it hums more loudly than the Œstrus, though it has a smaller sting.
These characters and circumstances do not at all agree with the modern Œstrus, which, so far from being a blood-sucker furnished with a strong proboscis, has scarcely any mouth. It shuns also the vicinity of water, to which our cattle generally fly as a refuge from it. It seems more probable that the Œstrus of Greece was related to Bruce'sZimb, represented in his figure with a long proboscis, which makes its appearance in the neighbourhood of rivers, and belongs to theTabanidæ. For further information the reader should consult Mr. W. S. MacLeay's learned paper on the insect calledOistrosandAsilusby the ancients.Linn. Trans.xiv. 353—.
[246]Bruce'sTravels, 8vo. ii. 315.
[247]Heb. בעל זבוב literally "Lord-Fly." See 2 Kings, i. 2; and Bochart.Hierozoic.ps. ii. l. 4. c. 9. p. 490.
[248]Burn-CoworOx, from βους bos, and πρηθω inflammo. M. Latreille translates itCrève-bœuf, but improperly.
[249]Annales du Muséum.—XeAnn. Noxi. p. 129.
[250]Observations de plusieurs Singularités, &c.l. i. c. 45. p. 73 of the Edition in Sir Joseph Banks's Library.
[251]Hist. Nat.l. xxix. c. 4.
[252]See Curtis,Brit. Ent.t. 142.
[253]Mr. Curtis (Brit. Ent.t. 106) under the name ofŒstrus pictushas figured a fine species of Gad-fly taken in the New Forest, which he conjectures may be bred from the Deer. It may probably be one of the species here alluded to.
[254]Reaum. v. 69.Dictionnaire de Trevoux, articleCerf.
[255]For the account of the Œstrus, of the deer, see Reaum. v. 67-77.
[256]Linn.Lach. Lapp.ii. 45. In the passage here referred to, Linné speaks of two species of Œstrus, though the mode of expression indicates that he considered them as the same. One wasŒ. nasalisfrom which they freed themselves by snorting, &c., the otherŒ. Tarandiwhich formed the pustules in their backs. InSyst. Nat.969. 3. he strangely observes under the former species, "Habitat in equorumfauce, per nares intrans!" confounding probablyŒ. veterinusof Mr. Clark with the trueŒ. nasalis.
[257]Lach. Lapp.i. 280.
[258]Flor. Lapp.79.
[259]Linn.Flor. Lapp.379.
[260]Mr. Kittoe.
[261]PlateV.Fig. 3.
[262]Melittophagus, Mus. Kirby. SeeMon. Ap. Angl.ii. 168. I copy the following memorandum respectingM. Melittæfrom my common-place-book, May 7, 1812. On the flowers of Ficaria, Taraxacum and Bellis, I found a great number of this insect, which seemed extremely restless, running here and there over the flowers, and over each other, with great swiftness mounting the anthers, and sometimes lifting themselves up above them, as if looking for something. One or two of them leaped upon my hand. Near one of these flowers I found a smallAndrenaorHalictus, upon which some of these creatures were busy sucking the poor animal, so that it seemed unable to fly away. When disclosed from the egg, I imagine they get on the top of these flowers to attach themselves to any of theAndrenidæthat may alight on them, or come sufficiently near for them to leap on it.—K.
[263]Latreille,Hist. des Fourmis, 307-20.
[264]See above, p.34.
[265]NaturforscherStk. xvi. 74.
[266]Quoted from Campbell'sTravels in South Africa, in theQuarterly Review for July1815. 315.
[267]Huber.Pref.xi-xiii.
[268]De Geer, ii. 83.
[269]Considered by Mr. Clark as a new genus, which he has namedCuterebra, and of which he has described three species.Essay on the Bots of Horses, &c.p.63.t.2.f.24-29.
[270]Linn. Trans.ix. 156-61.
[271]Germar'sMag. der Ent.i. 1-10. Mr. Stephens, in hisIllustrations of British Entomology(No. I. p. 4.), very judiciously asks, "May not these herbivorous larvæ have been the principal cause of the mischief to the wheat, while those of theZabruscontributed rather to lessen their numbers than to destroy the corn." But this query does not account for their being found, when in the perfect state, attacking the ear. I have seen cognate beetles devouring the seeds of umbelliferous plants.
[272]Act. Stockh.1778. 3. n. 11. and 4. n. 4. Marsham inLinn. Trans.ii. 79.
[273]Linn. Trans.ii. 76-80.
[274]Encyclopæd. Britann.viii. 480-95.
[275]Young'sAnnals of Agriculture, xi. 471.
[276]Tipula Tritici, K., belonging to Latreille's genusCecidomyia. (See above, p. 28.notea.) Marsham and Kirby inLinn. Trans.iii. 242-5. iv. 225-39. v. 96-110.
[277]Oliv. ii. n. 19. 3-4.
[278]Curculio testaceus,Ent. Brit.
[279]Marsham inLinn. Trans.ii. 80. De Geer notices the injury done by this fly to rye, and observes that before it had been attributed to frost. ii. 68.
[280]Act. Stockh.1750. 128. Reaum. ii. 480, &c.
[281]This insect was taken in maize by Mr. Sparshall of Norwich.
[282]Smith's Abbott'sInsects of Georgia, 191.
[283]I say this upon the authority of Mr. Wolnough of Hollesley (late of Boyton) in Suffolk, an intelligent agriculturist, and a most acute and accurate observer of nature.
[284]Reaum. vi. 566.
[285]Kalm'sTravels, i. 173.
[286]Amoreux, 288.
[287]I have raised plants from this seed, which appear from the foliage to belong either toPhaseolusorDolichos.
[288]Markwick, Marsham and Lehmann inLinn. Trans.vi. 142-. and Kirby in ditto, ix. 37. 42. n. 19. 23.
[289]PlateXVII.Fig.12.
[290]Philos. Trans.1741. 581.
[291]De Geer, ii. 341.Amœn. Acad.iii. 355.
[292]Farmer's Mag.iii. 487.
[293]Pallas'sTravels in South Russia, i. 30.
[294]PlateXVIII.Fig.4.
[295]Marsham inCommunications to the Board of Agriculture, iv. 412.Platexviii.fig. 4. andLinn. Trans.ix. 60.
[296]PlateXXIV.Fig.3.
[297]The wire-worm is particularly destructive for a few years in gardens recently converted from pasture ground. In the Botanic Garden at Hull thus circumstanced a great proportion of the annuals sown in 1813 were destroyed by it. A very simple and effectual remedy in such cases was mentioned to me by Sir Joseph Banks. He recommended that slices of potato stuck upon skewers should be buried near the seeds sown, examined every day, and the wire-worms which collect upon them in great numbers destroyed.
This plan of decoying destructive animals from our crops by offering them more tempting food, is excellent, and deserves to be pursued in other instances. It was very successfully employed in 1813 by J. M. Rodwell, Esq. of Barham Hall near Ipswich, one of the most skilful and best informed agriculturists in the county of Suffolk, to preserve some of his wheat-fields from the ravages of a small gray slug, which threatened to demolish the plant. Having heard that turnips had been used with success to entice the slugs from wheat, he caused a sufficient quantity to dress eight acres to be got together; and then, the tops being divided and the apples sliced, he directed the pieces to be laid separately, dressing two stetches with them and omitting two alternately, till the whole field of eight acres was gone over. On the following morning he employed two women to examine and free from the slugs, which they did into a measure, the tops and slices; and when cleared they were laid upon those stetches that had been omitted the day before. It was observed invariably, that in the stetches dressed with the turnips no slugs were to be found upon the wheat or crawling upon the land, though they abounded upon the turnips; while on the undressed stetches they were to be seen in great numbers both on the wheat and on the land. The quantity of slugs thus collected was near a bushel.—Mr. Rodwell is persuaded that by this plan he saved his wheat from essential injury.
[298]Reaum. v. 11.
[299]Two species are confounded under the appellation ofthe grub, the larvæ namely ofTipula oleraceaandcornicina, which last is very injurious, though not equally with the first. In the rich district ofSunk Islandin Holderness, in the spring of 1813, hundreds of acres of pasture have been entirely destroyed by them, being rendered as completely brown as if they had suffered a three months drought, and destitute of all vegetation except that of a few thistles. A square foot of the dead turf being dug up, 210 grubs were counted in it! and, what furnishes a striking proof of the prolific powers of these insects, the next year it was difficult to find a single one.
[300]Stickney'sObservations on the Grub.
[301]De Geer, i. 487.
[302]I owe this information to the late Robinson Kittoe, Esq.
[303]Castle inPhilos. Trans.xxx. 346.
[304]Browne'sCivil and Nat. Hist. of Jamaica, 430.
[305]Essai sur la Géographie des Plantes, 136.
[306]M'Kinnen, 171. Browneubi supr.Merian,Ins. Sur.10.
[307]Smith's Abbott'sInsects of Georgia, 199.
[308]Illiger,Mag.i. 256.
[309]The farmers would do well to change the name of this insect fromturnip-flytoturnip-flea, since from its diminutive size and activity in leaping the latter name is much the most proper. The term,the fly, might with propriety be restricted to the Hop-aphis.
[310]Young'sAnnals of Agriculture, vii. 102.
[311]Marshall inPhilos. Trans.lxxiii. 1783.
[312]See above, p.167-168.
[313]Swamm. ii. 81.col.b.—Gyllenhal in describing the last-named species, so common on the flowers of siliquose plants (Insecta Suecica, iii. 142.), asks if hisR. sulcicollis(C. Pleurostigma, E. B.), which agrees with it in most respects, except in having toothed thighs, be not the other sex? This query I can solve in the negative, having taken the sexes ofR. assimilisin coitu, which do not differ, save that the male has a somewhat shorter rostrum.
[314]Spence'sObservations on the Disease in Turnips called Fingers and Toes.Hull 1812. 8vo.
[315]Reaum. ii. 471.
[316]See above, p.29.
[317]De Geer, ii. 440. In the summer of 1826 when at Brussels, I observed that delicious vegetable of thecabbagetribe so largely cultivated there under the name ofJets de choux, and which in England we callBrussels sprouts, to be materially injured in the later stages of its growth by the attacks of theturnip-flea, and other little beetles of the same genus (Haltica), which were so numerous and so universally prevalent, that I scarcely ever examined a full-grown plant from which a vast number might not have been collected. Some plants were almost black with them, the species most abundant being of a dark æneous tinge. They had not merely eroded the cuticle in various parts, so as to give the leaves a brown blistered appearance, but had also eaten them into large holes, at the margin of which I often saw them in the act of gnawing; and the stunted and unhealthy appearance of the plants sufficiently indicated the injurious effect of this interruption of the proper office of the sap. What was particularly remarkable, considering the locomotive powers of these insects, was that the young turnips, sown in August after the wheat and rye, close to acres of Brussels sprouts, (which all round Brussels are planted in the open fields among other crops,) infested by myriads of these insects, were not more eaten by them than they usually are in England, and produced good average crops. It would seem, agreeably to a fact already mentioned, (see Vol. I. 4th Edit. p. 389,) that they prefer the taste of leaves to which they have been accustomed, to younger plants of the same natural family; and hence perhaps the previous sowing of a crop of cabbage-plants in the corner of a field meant for turnips, might allure and keep there the great bulk of these insects present in the vicinity, until the turnips were out of danger.
[318]Perhaps this fly is the same which Linné confounded withTachina Larvarum, which he says he had found in the roots of the cabbage (Syst. Nat.992. 78.) I say "confounded," because it is not likely that the same species should be parasitic in an insect, and also inhabit a vegetable.
[319]In lately examining, however, some young garden peas and beans about four inches high, I observed the margins of the leaves to be gnawed into deep scollops by a little weevil (Sitona lineata), of which I found from two to eight on each pea and bean, and many in the act of eating. Not only were the larger leaves of every plant thus eroded, but in many cases the terminal young shoots and leaves were apparently irreparably injured. I have often noticed this and another of the short-snouted Curculios (S. tibialis) in great abundance in pea and bean fields, but was not aware till now that either of them was injurious to these plants. Probably both are so, but whether the crop is materially affected by them must be left to further inquiry.
[320]Reaum. ii. 479.
[321]Description ofS. Ceparum.—Cinereous, clothed with distant black hairs, proceeding, particularly on the thorax, from a black point. Legs nigrescent. Back of the abdomen of the male with an interrupted black vitta down the middle. Wings immaculate. Poisers and alulæ pale yellow. Length 3½ lines.
[322]Barton inPhilos. Magaz.ix. 62.
[323]Reaum. ii. 337.
[324]Apis.**. c. 2. α. K.
[325]Reaum. iv. 499.
[326]Rai.Hist. Ins.Prolegom. xi.
[327]This kind of misnomer frequently occurs in entomological authors.—Thus, for instance, theCurculio (Rynchites) Alliariæof Linné feeds upon the hawthorn, andCurculio (Cryptorhynchus) Lapathiupon the willow (Curtis inLinn. Trans.i. 86.); but asAlliariais common in hawthorn hedges, and docks often grow under willows, the mistake in question easily happened: when, however, such mistakes are discovered, theTrivial Nameought certainly to be altered.
[328]I consider this insect as the type of a new subgenus (Phyllopertha, K. MS.), which connects those tribes ofMelolontha, F. that have a mesosternal prominence with those that have not. Of this subgenus I possess six species. It is clearly distinct fromAnisoplia, under which DeJean arranges it.
[329]Wiener Verzeich.8vo. 29.
[330]Fabricius seems to have regarded the saw-fly that feeds upon thesallow(Nematus Capreæ), not only as synonymous with that which feeds upon theosier, but also with our little assailant of thegooseberryandcurrant. Yet it is very evident from Reaumur's account, whose accuracy may be depended upon, that they are all distinct species. Fabricius's description of theflyagrees with the insect of the gooseberry, but that which he has given of thelarvabelongs to the animal inhabiting the sallow. Probably, confounding the two species, he described the imago from the insect of the former, and the larva (if he did not copy from Reaumur or Linné) from that of the latter. Linné was correct in regarding Reaumur's three insects as distinct species, though he appears to be mistaken in referring to him underN. flavus, as the saw-fly of the currant and gooseberry is not wholly yellow.
[331]Peck'sNat. Hist. of the Slug-worm, 9.
[332]Trost Kleiner Beytrag. 38.
[333]Reaum. ii. 477.
[334]On the Apple and Pear, 158. The beetle Mr. Knight alludes to is probably thePolydrosus oblongus, which answers his description, and is common on pear-trees.—In Holland, it is stated in a little tract on this subject (Verhandeling ten bewijze &c. doorF. H. van Berck. 8vo. Haarlem 1807), that the great destroyer of the blossoms of their apple- and pear-trees is the larva of another weevil,Anthonomus Pomorum, which from the name and Gyllenhal's addition to the habitat given by Linné—"quas destruit"—should seem to be injurious in Sweden also.
[335]Reaum.ubi supr.475.
[336]On Fruit Trees, 271.
[337]On the Apple and Pear, 45.
[338]Reaum. ii. 499.
[339]Mr. Scales.
[340]See Observations on this Insect in the 2nd volume of theHorticultural Society's Transactions, p. 25. By W. Spence.
[341]Reaum. iv. 69.t.5.f.6, 7.
[342]A solution of quick-lime is recommended in theGardener's Magazine for January1828, a periodical work which every friend of Horticulture ought to possess.
[343]This Aphis is evidently the insect described in Illiger'sMagazin, i. 450. under the name ofA. lanigera, as having done great injury to the apple-trees in the neighbourhood of Bremen in 1801. That it is an Aphis and no Coccus is clear from itsoralrostrum and the wings of the male, of which Sir Joseph Banks possesses an admirable drawing by Mr. Bauer. On this Aphis see Forsyth, 265;Monthly Mag.xxxii. 320; and also for August 1811; and Sir Joseph Banks in theHorticultural Society's Transactions, ii. 162. Those Aphides that transpire a cottony excretion are now considered as belonging to a distinct genus, under the name ofMyzoxyla.
[344]M. de la Hire in Reaum. ii. 478.
[345]Dr. Smith Barton's Letter inPhilos. Magaz.xxii. 210. William Davy, Esq. American Consul of the Port of Hull, long resident in the United States, informed me that though he had abundance of peaches at his country-house, German Town near Philadelphia, he could never succeed with the nectarine, the fruit constantly falling off perforated by the grub of some insect.
[346]Descr. of the I. of St. Helena, 147.
[347]A mode of destroying this hurtful insect is given in a Number of that useful and interesting work, theGardener's Magazine, just quoted.
[348]Reaum. ii. 505.
[349]Ibid. ii. 507. and Hasselquist'sTravels in the Levant, 428.
[350]That is "High and Low," Judges ix. 13.
[351]SturmDeutschlands Fauna, i. 5.
[352]Latreille,Hist. Nat.xi. 66. 331.
[353]Host in Jacquin.Collect.iii. 297.
[354]Pallas'sTravels in S. Russia, ii. 241.
[355]Jacquin.Collect.ii. 97.
[356]Deut. xxviii. 39.
[357]Travels, ii. 6.
[358]Collinson inPhilos. Trans.liv. x. 65.
[359]Rösel, I. ii. 15.
[360]Reaum. ii. 122.
[361]Mouffet, 160.
[362]Philos. Trans.xix. 741.
[363]Reaum. i. 387. These larvæ were so extremely numerous in 1826 on the limes of theAllée Verteat Brussels, that many of the trees of that noble avenue, though of great age, were nearly deprived of their leaves, and afforded little of the shade which the unusual heat of the summer so urgently required. The moths which in autumn proceeded from them, when in motion towards night, swarmed like bees, and subsequently on the trunk of every tree might be seen scores of females depositing their down-covered patch of eggs. In theParkthey were also very abundant; and it may be safely asserted that if one half of the eggs deposited were to be hatched, in 1827 scarcely a leaf would remain in either of these favourite places of public resort. Happily, however, this calamity seems likely to be prevented. Of the vast number of patches of eggs which I saw on almost every tree in the park about the end of September, I could two months afterwards to my no small surprise, discover scarcely one, though the singularity of the fact made me examine closely. For their disappearance I have no doubt the inhabitants of Brussels are indebted to the tit-mouse (Parus), the tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris), and other small birds known to derive part of their food from the eggs of insects, and which abound in the park, where they may be often seen running up and down the trunks of the trees, at once providing their own food and rendering a service to man, which all his powers would be inadequate completely to effect.
Reaumur (ii. 106) in certain seasons found these patches of eggs so numerous, that in theBois de Boulognethere was scarcely an oak, the under side of the branches of which were not covered by them for an extent of seven or eight feet. He informs us that the eggs are not hatched till the following spring.
[364]Wiener Verzeich.8vo. 75.
[365]CurtisBrit. Ent.t. 117.
[366]De Geer, ii. 452.
[367]Kalm'sTravels, ii. 7.
[368]The same intelligent gentleman related to me, that a person having taken some land at Bahia in the Brazils, he was compelled by these ants, which were so numerous as to render every effort to destroy them ineffectual, to relinquish the occupation of it. Their nests were excavated to the astonishing depth of fourteen feet. MerianInsect. Sur.18. Smeathman onTermites, Phil. Trans.lxxi. 39. note 35.
[369]Stedman, ii. 142.
[370]Hist. Nat.l. xi. c. 12.
[371]CurtisBrit. Ent.t. 60.
[372]Lewin inLinn. Trans.iii. 1.—Curtis in do. i. 86.
[373]CurtisBrit. Ent.t.104.
[374]MacLeay inEdinburgh Philos. Journ.n. xxi. 123. CurtisBrit. Ent.t.43.
[375]Wilhelm'sRecreations from Nat. Hist.quoted by LatreilleHist. Nat.xi. 194.
[376]Reaum. ii. 502.
[377]Bochart,Hierozoic.P. ii. l. iv. c. 5. 475.
[378]Bochart,ubi supr.c. 6. 485.
[379]Exod. x. 5. 14, 15.
[380]Hist. Nat.l. xi. c. 29. A similar law was enacted in Lemnos, by which every one was compelled to bring a certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates. Plin.ibid.
[381]Oros.contra Pag.l. v. c. 2.
[382]Lesser,L.247. note 46.
[383]Mouffet, 123.
[384]Bingley, iii. 258.
[385]Philos. Trans.1686.
[386]Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, 233.
[387]Philos. Trans.xlvi. 30.
[388]Major Moor, author ofThe Narrative of Captain Little's Detachment,The Hindu Pantheon, &c.
[389]Travels, i. 348.
[390]Travels, &c. 257.
[391]Southey'sThalaba, i. 171.
[392]Genes. xvi. 12.
[393]Jackson'sTravels in Marocco, 54.
[394]See Bochart,Hierozoic. P. l. iv. c. 5. 474-5.
[395]Southey'sThalaba, i. 169.
[396]Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said—"And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle." ix. 9.
[397]Joel ii. 2-10. 20.
[398]Voyage to the Levant, 444.
[399]Voyage to the Levant, p. 446-7.
[400]See p.219.
[401]Travels, 54.
[402]Travels, i. 366.
[403]Travels, 455.
[404]Travels, 447.
[405]Amœn. Acad.iii. 345.
[406]Sparrman, i. 103. This insect, by Swedish entomologists, is supposed to be a species ofAnobium, F., (Ptinus, L.,) but the specimen preserved in the Linnean cabinet isSilpha roseaof Mr. Marsham (Cacidula pectoralis, Meg.). A small beetle of the first family ofCryptophagusof Major Gyllenhal swarms often in the ship biscuit, and may probably be the insect Sparrman here complains of under the name ofDermestes paniceus.
[407]See above, p.172.
[408]De Geer, v. 46. This insect appears nearly related to Mr. Marsham'sCorticaria pulla(E. B.i. 11. 14.Latridius porcatus, Herbst), if it be not the same insect.
[409]Amœn. Acad.iii. 345.
[410]This name has long been given to this insect, and the Characters of the genus were drawn by Mr. Curtis before the publication of Meigen's fifth volume (in which the genus is calledPiophila); it is therefore retained. See CurtisBrit. Ent. t.126.
[411]Reaum. iii. 276.
[412]Leeuwenh.Epist.99.
[413]Ceylon, 307.
[414]Voyage, &c. 72.
[415]Williamson'sEast India Vade Mecum.
[416]Calcutta, a Poem, 85.
[417]Ptinus piceus, Marsh.
[418]On examining ninety-two chests ofopium, part of the cargo saved from the Charlton, previously to reshipping them from Chittagong for China, thirteen were found to be full of white ants, which had almost wholly devoured the opium.Article from Chittagong, Nov.1812,in one of the Newspapers, July31, 1813.
[419]Ptinus rubellus, Marsh.
[420]Bibl. Nat.i. 125. b. 126. a.
[421]Sir Geo. Staunton'sVoy.8vo. 189.
[422]Kerr inPhilos. Trans.1781.
[423]Reaum. iii. 266.
[424]Ibid. 59.
[425]Reaum. iii. 42.
[426]Ibid. 257.
[427]Amœn. Acad.iii. 346.
[428]Kirby inLinn. Trans.v. 250.
[429]Curculio lignarius, Marsh.Rhinosimus ruficollis, Latr.
[430]The species of the genusDorcadionseparated fromLamiaare discovered to live upon the roots of grass.
[431]Thelarvaof aCallidium(which Dr. Leach has discovered to beC. Bajulus) sometimes does material injury to the wood-work of the roofs of houses in London, piercing in every direction the fir-rafters, and, when arrived at the perfect state, making its way out even through sheets of lead one-sixth of an inch thick, when they happen to have been nailed upon the rafter in which it has assumed its final metamorphosis. I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks for a specimen of such a sheet of lead, which, though only eight inches long and four broad, is thus pierced with twelve oval holes, of some of which the longest diameter is a quarter of an inch! Mr. Charles Miller first discovered lead in the stomach of the larva of this insect.
[432]P. 310.
[433]See Kirby,ubi supr.253.—More than a hundred species of the Capricorn tribe, many of them nondescripts, were collected in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro by Captain Hancock, of the Foudroyant.
[434]InLinn. Trans.x. 399.
[435]Syst. Nat.565. 2.
[436]Smith'sIntroduction to Botany, Pref. xv.
[437]Afzelius inLinn. Trans.iv. 261.
[438]Linn. Trans.x. 403.
[439]Kirby,Mon. Ap. Ang.i. 152-194. Latreille,Gen.iv. 161—.
[440]In order to ascertain how farpuresea water is essential to this insect, and consequently what danger exists of its being introduced into the woodwork of our docks and piers communicating with our salt-water rivers, as at Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Ipswich, &c., where it might be far more injurious than even on the coast, I have, since December 15th 1815, when Mr. Lutwidge was so kind as to furnish me with a piece of oak full of the insects in a living state, poured a not very strong solution of common salt over the wood, every other day, so as to keep the insects constantly wet. On examining it this day (Feb. 5th 1816) I found them alive; and, what seems to prove them in as good health as in their natural habitat, numbers have established themselves in a piece of fir-wood which I nailed to the oak, and have in this short interval, and in winter too, bored many cells in it.
[441]See p.226.
[442]Reaum. iii. 270.
[443]SchrankEnum. Ins. Austr.513. 1058.
[444]Horne'sIntrod. to Bibliography, i. 311.
[445]It appears from Humboldt (Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 116.) that the destructive insects called by this name, areTermites.
[446]Ulloa, i. 67.
[447]Amœn. Acad.iii. 345.
[448]Drury'sInsects, iii. Preface.
[449]It is not its hardness that protects the teak, as the Asiatic Termites attack Lignum Vitæ, but probably some essential oil disagreeable to them with which it is impregnated. This is the more likely, since they will eat it when it is old and has been long exposed to the air.Tanninhas been conjectured to be the protecting substance, but erroneously, as leather of every kind is devoured by them. Williamson'sEast India Vade Mecum, ii. 56. It is its hardness probably that protects the iron-wood from the African Termites. Smeathman inPhilos. Trans.1781. 11. 47.
[450]Japan, ii. 127.
[451]Political Essay on New Spain, iv. 135.
[452]This account of theTermitesis chiefly taken from Smeathman inPhilos. Trans.1781, and Percival'sCeylon, 307—.
[453]Oriental Memoirs, i. 362.
[454]Morning Herald, Dec. 31st, 1814.
[455]The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a condition from the attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, had not the ship been firmly lashed together, it was thought she would have foundered on her voyage home.—The late Mr. Kittoe informed me that theDroguersorDraguers, a kind of lighter employed in the West Indies in collecting the sugar, sometimes so swarm with ants, of the common kind, that they have no other way of getting rid of these troublesome insects than by sinking the vessel in shallow water.
[456]Luke x. 19.
[457]Sparrman'sVoyage, i. 367.
[458]TheCoprion,Cantharus, andHeliocantharusof the ancients was evidently this beetle, or one nearly related to it, which is described as rolling backwards large masses of dung, and attracted such general attention as to give rise to the proverbCantharus pilulam. It should seem from the name, derived from a word signifying an ass, that the Grecian beetle made its pills of asses' dung; and this is confirmed by a passage in one of the plays of Aristophanes, theIrene, where a beetle of this kind is introduced, on which one of the characters rides to heaven to petition Jupiter for peace. The play begins with one domestic desiring another to feed the Cantharus with some bread, who afterwards orders his companion to give him another kind of bread made ofasses'dung.
[459]PlateXXII.Fig.4, 5.
[460]See Latr.Gen.i. 275.
[461]This property in the carrion insects may be turned to a good account by the comparative anatomist, who has only to flay the body of one of the smaller animals, anoint it with honey, and bury it in an ant-hill; and in a short time he will obtain a perfect skeleton, denudated of every fibril of muscle, though with the ligaments and cartilages untouched.
[462]Gleditsch,Abhandlungen, iii. 200.
[463]It is to be observed that in our cold climates, during the winter months, when excrement and putrescent animal matter are not so offensive, they are left to the action of the elements, insects being then torpid.
[464]CurtisBrit. Ent. t.5.
[465]Surely Mr. Marsham's name for this genus,Boletaria, is much more proper than that of Fabricius,Mycetophagus(Agaric-eater), since these insects seldom eat agarics.
[466]Œcon. Nat. Amœn. Ac.ii. 50. Stillingfleet'sTracts, 122.