The different species assume the imago at different times of the year; but the same species appear regularly at nearly the same period annually, and for a certain number of days fill the air in the neighbourhood of the rivers, emerging also from the water at a certain hour of the day. Those which Swammerdam observed, began to fly about six o'clock in the evening, or about two hours before sun-set; but the great body of those noticed by Reaumur did not appear till after that time; so that the season of different harvests is not better known to the farmer, than that in which the Ephemeræ of a particular river are to emerge, is to the fishermen. Yet a greater degree of heat or cold, the rise or fall of the water, and other circumstances we are not aware of, may accelerate or retard their appearance. Between the 10th and 15th of August is the time when those of the Seine and Marne, which Reaumur described, are expected by the fishermen,who call themmanna: and when their season is come, they say "the manna begins to appear, the manna fell abundantly such a night;"—alluding, by this expression, either to the astonishing quantity of food which the Ephemeræ afford the fish, or to the large quantity of fish which they then take.
Reaumur first observed these insects in the year 1738, when they did not begin to show themselves in numbers till the 18th of August. On the 19th, having received notice from his fisherman that the flies had appeared, he got into his boat about three hours before sun-set, and detached from the banks of the river several masses of earth filled with pupæ, which he put into a large tub full of water. This tub, after staying in the boat till about eight o'clock, without seeing any remarkable number of the flies, and being threatened with a storm, he caused to be landed and placed in his garden, at the foot of which ran the Marne. Before the people had landed it, an astonishing number of Ephemeræ emerged from it. Every piece of earth that was above the surface of the water was covered by them, some beginning to quit their slough, others prepared to fly, and others already on the wing; and every where under the water they were to be seen in a greater or less degree of forwardness. The storm coming on, he was obliged to quit the amusing scene; but when the rain ceased to fall he returned to it. As soon as the cloth with which he had ordered the tub to be covered was removed, the number of flies appeared to be greatly augmented, and kept continually increasing: many flew away, but more were drowned. Those already transformed, and continually transforming, would have been sufficient of themselves to have made the tubseem full; but their number was soon very much enlarged by others attracted by the light. To prevent their being drowned, he caused the tub to be again covered with the cloth, and over it he held the light, which was soon concealed by a layer of these flies, that might have been taken by handfulls from the candlestick.
But the scene round the tub was nothing to be compared with the wonderful spectacle exhibited on the banks of the river. The exclamations of his gardener drew the illustrious naturalist thither: and such a sight he had never witnessed, and could scarcely find words to describe. "The myriads of Ephemeræ," says he, "which filled the air over the current of the river, and over the bank on which I stood, are neither to be expressed nor conceived. When the snow falls with the largest flakes, and with the least interval between them, the air is not so full of them as that which surrounded us was of Ephemeræ. Scarcely had I remained in one place a few minutes, when the step on which I stood was quite concealed with a layer of them from two to four inches in depth. Near the lowest step a surface of water of five or six feet dimensions every way was entirely and thickly covered by them: and what the current carried off was continually replaced. Many times I was obliged to abandon my station, not being able to bear the shower of Ephemeræ, which, falling with an obliquity less constant than that of an ordinary shower, struck continually, and in a manner extremely uncomfortable, every part of my face:—eyes, mouth and nostrils were filled with them." To hold the flambeau on this occasion was no pleasant office. The person who filled it had his clothescovered in a few moments with these flies, which came from all parts to overwhelm him.—Before ten o'clock this interesting spectacle had vanished. It was renewed for some nights afterwards, but the flies were never in such prodigious numbers. The fishermen allow only three successive days for the great fall of the manna: but a few flies appear both before and after, their number increasing in one case, in the other diminishing. Whatever be the temperature of the atmosphere, whether it be cold or hot, these flies invariably appear at the same hour in the evening, that is, between a quarter and half-past eight: towards nine they begin to fill the air; in the following half-hour they are in the greatest numbers; and at ten there are scarcely any to be seen. So that in less than two hours this infinite host of flies emerge from their parent stream, fill the air, perform their appointed work, and vanish. A very large proportion of them falls into the river, when the fish have their grand festival and the fishermen a good harvest[515].
Under this head I may observe how much the patient angler is indebted to insects for some of his choicest baits, for the best opportunities of showing his skill, and for the most gratifying part of his diversion. The case-worm and several other larvæ are the best standing bait for many fish. The larva of the Ephemera, there called bait and bank-bait[516], is much used in some parts of Holland. The case-worms, and grubs (I suppose of flies) from the tallow-chandlers are in request with us for roach and dace; and I am told by an acute observer ofthese things, the Rev. R. Sheppard, that theGeotrupesandMelolonthæare good baits for chub[517]. But to be an adept in fly-fishing, which requires the most skill and furnishes the best diversion, the angler ought to be conversant in Entomology, at least sufficiently so to distinguish the different species ofPhryganeaand otherTrichoptera, and to know the time of their appearance.—The angler is not only indebted to insects for some of his best baits, but also for the best material to fasten his hooks to, and even for making his lines for smaller fish—the Indian grass or gut as it is called, (termed in FranceCheveux de Florence,) which is said to be prepared in China from the matter contained in the silk reservoirs of the silk-worm, but according to Latreille is the silk vessel itself when dried[518].
One of the most important ends for which insects were gifted with such powers of multiplication, giving birth to myriads of myriads of individuals, was to furnish the feathered part of the creation with a sufficient supply of food. The number of birds that derive the whole or a principal part of their subsistence from insects is, as is universally known, very great, and includes species of almost every order.
Amongst theAccipitresthe kestril (Falco Tinnunculus, L.) devours abundance of insects. A friend of mine, upon opening one found its stomach full of the remains of grasshoppers and beetles, particularly the former, which he suspects constitute great part of the food of this species. One of the shrikes, also, or butcher-birds (Lanius Collurio)—and it is probable that other species of this numerous genus may have the same habits—is known to feed upon insects, which it first impales alive on the thorns of the sloe and other spinous plants, and then devours. If meat be given it, when kept in a cage, it will fix it upon the wires before it eats it.Lanius Excubitoralso impales insects, but Heckewelder denies that it feeds upon them. If he be correct, the object of this singular procedure with that species, may be to allure the birds, which it preys upon, to a particular spot[519].
Amongst thePicæor Pies theCrotophaga, called the Ani, which is a native of Africa and America, lives upon the locust andIxodes Ricinus, which it picks in great numbers from the backs of cattle; but none are greaterdevourers of insects in this order than rooks. It is for the grubs ofMelolontha,Tipula, &c., that they follow the plough; and they always frequent the meadows in which these larvæ abound, destroying them in vast numbers. Kalm tells us, that when the little crow was extirpated from Virginia at an enormous expense, the inhabitants would willingly have brought them back again at double the price[520]. The icteric oriole is kept by the Americans in their houses for the sake of clearing them of insects; and the purple grackle is so useful in this respect, that when, on account of their consuming grain, the American farmers in New England offered a reward of threepence a head for them, and they were in consequence nearly extirpated, insects increased to such a degree as to cause a total loss of the herbage, and the inhabitants were obliged to obtain hay for their cattle not only from Pennsylvania but even from Great Britain[521]. Of this order also is the bee-cuckoo (Cuculus Indicator) so celebrated for its instinct, by which it serves as a guide to the wild bees' nests in Africa. Sparrman describes this bird, which is somewhat larger than a common sparrow, as giving this information in a singular manner. In the evening and morning, which are its meal-times, it excites the attention of the Hottentots, colonists, and honey-ratel, by the cry ofcherr, cherr, cherr, and conducts them to the tree or spot in which the bees' nest is concealed, continually repeating this cry. When arrived at the spot, it hovers over it, and then alighting on some neighbouring tree or bush, sits in silence, expecting to come in for its share of the spoil, which is that part of thecomb containing the brood[522].—The wryneck and the woodpeckers, the nut-hatch and tree-creeper, live entirely upon insects and their eggs[523], which they pick out of decayed trees and out of the bark of living ones. The former also frequents grass-plats and ant-hills, into which it darts its long flexible tongue and so draws out its prey. The woodpecker likewise draws insects out of their holes by means of the same organ, which for this purpose is bony at the end and barbed, and furnished with a curious apparatus of muscles to enable them to throw it forwards with great force. Some species spit the insects on their tongue, and thus bring them into their mouth. In America, the tree-creeper is furnished with a box at the end of a long pole to entice it to build in gardens, which it is found to be particularly useful in clearing from noxious insects.
Amongst theGrallæor Waders, many of the long-billed birds eat the larvæ of insects as well as worms: and they form also no inconsiderable part of the food of our domestic poultry, especially turkeys, which may be daily seen busily engaged in hunting for them, and, as well as ducks, will greedily devour the larger insects, as cockchafers, and in North AmericaCicadæ. Mr. Sheppard was much amused one day in July last year with observing a cow which had taken refuge in a pond, probably from the gad-fly, and was standing nearly up to its belly in water. A fleet of ducks surrounded it, which kept continually jumping at the flies that alighted upon it. The cow, as if sensible of the service they were rendering her, stood perfectly still though assailedand pecked on all sides by them. The partridge takes her young brood to an ant-hill, where they feast upon the larvæ and pupæ, which Swammerdam informs us were sold at market in his time to feed various kinds of birds[524]. Dr. Clarke also mentions having seen them, as well as the ants themselves, exposed to sale in the market at Moscow as a food for nightingales[525]. Latreille tells us that singing birds are fed in France with the larvæ of the horse-ant (Formica rufa).
But the Linnean order ofPasseresaffords the greatest number of insectivorous birds; indeed almost all the species of this order, except perhaps the pigeon-tribe, and the cross-bill and other Loxiæ, more or less eat insects. Amongst the thrush tribe, the blackbird, though he will have his share of our gooseberries and currants, assists greatly in clearing our gardens of caterpillars; and the locust-eating thrush is still more useful in the countries subject to that dreadful pest: these birds never appear but with the locusts, and then accompany them in astonishing numbers, preying upon them in their larva state. The common sparrow, though proscribed as a most mischievous bird, destroys a vast number of insects. Bradley has calculated that a single pair having young to maintain, will destroy 3360 caterpillars in a week[526]. They also prey upon butterflies and other winged insects. The fly-catchers (Muscicapa) and the warblers (Motacilla), which include our sweetest songsters, are almost entirely supported by insects; so that were it not for these despised creatures we should be deprived of some of our greatest pleasures, and half the interest and delight of our vernalwalks would be done away. Our groves would no longer be vocal; our little domestic favourites the red-breast and the wren would desert us; and the heavens would be depopulated.—We should lose too some of the most esteemed dainties of our tables, one of which, the wheat-ear, is said to be attracted to our downs by a particular insect[527]. Lastly, insects are the sole food of swallows, which are always on the wing hawking for them, and their flight is regulated by that of their prey. When the atmosphere is dry and clear and their small game flies high, they seek the skies; when moist and the insects are low or upon the ground, they descend and just skim the surface of the earth and waters; and thus by their flight are regarded as prognosticating fair or wet weather. I was last summer much interested and amused by observing the tender care and assiduity with which an old swallow supplied her young with this kind of food. My attention was called to a young brood, that having left their nest before they were strong enough to take wing, were stationed on the lead which covers a bow window in my house. The mother was perpetually going and returning, putting an insect into the mouth first of one and then of the others in succession, all fluttering and opening their mouths to receive her gift. She was scarcely ever more than a minute away, and continued her excursions as long as we had time to observe her. When the little ones were satisfied, they put their head under their wing and went to sleep. The number of insects caught by this tribe is inconceivable. But it is not in summer only that birds derive their food from the insect tribes: even in winterthe pupæ ofLepidoptera, as Mr. White tells us, are the grand support of those that have a soft bill[528].
I shall close my list of the indirect benefits derived from insects, by adverting to the very singular apparent subserviency of some of them to the functions of certain vegetables.
You well know that some plants are gifted with the faculty of catching flies. These vegetable Muscicapæ, which have been enumerated by Dr. Barton of Philadelphia, who has published an ingenious paper on the subject[529], may be divided into three classes: First, those that entrap insects by the irritability of their stamina, which close upon them when touched. Under this head comeApocynum androsæmifolium,Asclepias syriacaandcurassavica,Nerium Oleander, and a grass described by Michaux under the name ofLeersia lenticularis. The second class includes those which entrap them by some viscosity of the plant, as many species ofRhododendron,Kalmia,Robinia,Silene,Lythrum,Populus balsamifera, &c.[530]And under the third class will arrange those which ensnare by their leaves, whether from some irritability in them, as inDionæa,Drosera, &c., or merely from their forming hollow vessels containing water, into which the flies are enticed either by their carrion-like odour, or the sweet fluid which many of them secrete near the faux,as inSarracenia,Nepenthes,Aquarium,Cephalotus, &c., the tubular leaves of which are usually found stored with putrefying insects. In this last class may be placed the commonDipsacusof this country, the connate leaves of which form a kind of basin round the stem, that retains rain-water in which many insects are drowned. To these a fourth class might be added, consisting of those plants whose flowers smelling like carrion (Stapelia hirsuta, &c.) entice flies to lay their eggs upon them, which thus perish.
The number of insects thus destroyed is prodigious. It is scarcely possible to find a flower of theMuscicapæ Asclepiadeæthat has not entrapped its victim, and some of them in the United States closely cover hundreds of acres together.
What may be the precise use of this faculty is not so apparent. Dr. Barton doubts whether the flowers that catch insects, being only temporary organs, can derive any nutriment from them; and he does not think it probable that the leaves ofDionæa, &c., which are usually found in rich boggy soil, can have any need of additional stimulus. As nothing however is made in vain, there can be little doubt that these ensnared insects are subservient to some important purpose in the economy of the plants which are endowed with the faculty of taking them, though we may be ignorant what that purpose is; and an experiment of Mr. Knight's, nurseryman in King's Road, London, seems to prove that in the case of Dionæa, at least, the very end in view, contrary to Dr. Barton's supposition, is the supplying the leaves with animal manure; for he found that a plant upon whose leaves he laid fine filaments of raw beef, was much more luxuriant inits growth than others not so treated[531]. Possibly the air evolved from the putrefying insects with whichSarracenia purpureais sometimes so filled as to scent the atmosphere round it, may be in a similar manner favourable to its vegetation.
Most of the insects which are found in the tubular leaves of this and similar plants enter into them voluntarily; but Sir James Smith mentions a curious fact, from which it appears that in some cases they are deposited by other species. One of the gardeners of the Liverpool Botanic Garden observed an insect, from the description one of theCrabronidæ, which dragged several large flies to theSarracenia adunca, and, having with some difficulty forced them under the lid or cover of its leaf, deposited them in its tubular part which was half filled with water: and on examination all the leaves were found crowded with dead or drowning flies[532]. What was the object of this singular manœuvre does not seem very obvious. At the first glance one might suppose that, having deposited an egg in the fly, it intended to avail itself of the tube of the leaf instead of a burrow. Yet we know of no such strange deviation from natural instinct, which would be the more remarkable because the insect wasEuropean, while the plant was American and growing in a hot-house. And at any rate it does not seem very likely that the insect would commit her egg to the tube without having previously examined it; in which case she must have discovered it to be half full of water, and consequently unfit for her purpose.—It is not so wonderful that many large flies should, as Professor Barton informs us, drop their eggs into the Ascidia furnishedwith dead carcases: and it seems very probable that Dytisci oviposit in them; for the Squilla which Rumphius found there was probably one of their larvæ, this being the old name for them[533].
However problematical the agency of insects caught by plants as to theirnutriment, there can be no doubt that many species perform an important function with regard to theirimpregnation, which indeed without their aid would in some cases never take place at all. Thus, for the due fertilization of the common Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) it is necessary that the irritable stamens should be brought into contact with the pistil by the application of some stimulus to the base of the filament; but this would never take place were not insects attracted by the melliferous glands of the flower to insinuate themselves amongst the filaments, and thus, while seeking their own food, unknowingly fulfill the intentions of nature in another department[534].
The agency of these little operators is not less indispensable in the beautiful tribe ofIris. In these, as appears from the observations of Kölreuter, the true stigma is situated on the upper side of a transverse membrane (arcus eminensof Haller) which is stretched across the middle of the under surface of the petal-like expansion or style-flag, the whole of which has been often improperly regarded as fulfilling the office of a stigma. Now as the anther is situated at the base of the style-flag which covers it, at a considerable distance from the stigma, and at the same time cut off from all access to it, by the intervening barrier formed by thearcus eminens, it is clear that but for some extraneous agency the pollen could never possibly arrive at the place of its destination. In thiscase thehumble-beeis the operator. Led by instinct, or, as the ingenious Sprengel supposes, by one of those honey marks (Saftmaal) or spots of a different colour from the rest of the corolla, which, according to him, are placed in many flowers expressly to guide insects to the nectaries, she pushes herself between the stiff style-flag and elastic petal, which last, while she is in the interior, presses her close to the anther, and thus causes her to brush off the pollen with her hairy back, which ultimately, though not at once, conveys it to the stigma. Having exhausted the nectar she retreats backwards; and in doing this, is indeed pressed by the petal to thearcus eminens; but it is only to its lower or negative surface, which cannot influence impregnation. She now takes her way to the second petal, and insinuating herself under its style-flag, her back comes into close contact with the true stigma, which is thus impregnated with the pollen of the first visited anther: and in this manner migrating from one part of the corolla to another, and from flower to flower, she fructifies one with pollen gathered in her search after honey in another.—Mr. Sprengel found, that not only are insects indispensable in fructifying the different species of Iris, but that some of them, asI. Xiphium, require the agency of the larger humble-bees, which alone are strong enough to force their way beneath the style-flag: and hence, as these insects are not so common as many others, this Iris is often barren, or bears imperfect seeds[535].
Aristolochia Clematitis, according to Professor Willdenow, is so formed, that the anthers of themselves cannotimpregnate the stigma; but this important affair is devolved upon a particular species of gnat (Cecidomyia pennicornis). The throat of the flower is lined with dense hair, pointing downward so as to form a kind of funnel or entrance like that of some kinds of mouse-traps, through which the insects may easily enter but not return: several creep in, and, uneasy at their confinement, are constantly moving to and fro, and so deposit the pollen upon the stigma: but when the work entrusted to them is completed, and impregnation has taken place, the hair which prevented their escape shrinks, and adheres closely to the sides of the flower, and these little go-betweens of Flora at length leave their prison[536]. Sir James Smith supposes that it is for want of some insect of this kind thatAristolochia Siphonever forms fruit in this country.
Equally important is the agency of insects in fructifying the plants of the Linnean classesMonoecia,DioeciaandPolygamia, in which the stamens are in one blossom and the pistil in another. In exploring these for honey and pollen, which last is the food of several insects besides bees[537], it becomes involved in the hair, with which in many cases their bodies seem provided for this express purpose, and is conveyed to the germen requiring itsfertilizing influence. Sprengel supposes that with this view some plants have particular insects appropriated to them, as to the dioecious nettleCatheretes Urticæ, to the toad-flaxCatheretes gravidus, both minute beetles, &c. Whether the operations ofCynips Psenesbe of that advantage in fertilizing the fig, which the cultivators of that fruit in the East have long supposed, is doubted by Hasselquist and Olivier[538], both competent observers, who have been on the spot. Our own gardeners, however, will admit their obligations to bees insettingtheir cucumbers and melons, to which they find the necessity of themselves conveying pollen from a male flower, when the early season of the year precludes the assistance of insects. Sprengel asserts, that apparently with a view to prevent hybrid mixtures, insects which derive their honey or pollen from different plants indiscriminately, will during a whole day confine their visits to that species on which they first fixed in the morning, provided there be a sufficient supply of it[539]; and the same observation was long since made with respect to bees by our countryman Dobbs[540].
Thus we see that the flowers which we vainly think are
"... born to blush unseen,And waste their fragrance on the desert air,"
"... born to blush unseen,And waste their fragrance on the desert air,"
though unvisited by the lord of the creation, who boasts that they were made for him, have nevertheless myriads of insect visitants and admirers, which, though they pilfer their sweets, contribute to their fertility.
I am, &c.
My last letter was devoted to the indirect advantages which we derive from insects; in the present I shall enumerate those of a moredirectnature for which we are indebted to them, beginning with their use as thefoodof man, in which respect they are of more importance than you may have conceived.
One class of animals which, till very lately, have been regarded as belonging to the entomological world, I mean theCrustacea, consisting principally of the genusCancerof Linné, are universally reckoned amongst our greatest dainties; and they who would turn with disgust from a locust or the grub of a beetle, feel no symptoms of nausea when a lobster, crab, or shrimp is set before them. The fact is, that habit has reconciled us to the eating of these last, which, viewed in themselves with their threatening claws and many feet, are really more disgusting than the former. Had the habit been reversed, we should have viewed the former with appetite and the latter with abhorrence, as do the Arabs, "who are as much astonished at our eating crabs, lobsters, and oysters, as we are at their eating locusts[541]." That thiswould have been the case is clear, at least as far as regards the former position, from the practice in other parts of the world, both in ancient and modern times, to which, begging you to lay aside your English prejudices, I shall now call your attention; first observing by the way, that the insects used as food, generally speaking, live on vegetable substances, and are consequently much more select and cleanly in their diet than the swine or the duck, which form a favourite part of ours.
Many larvæ[542]that belong to the orderColeopteraare eaten in different parts of the world. The grub of the palm-weevil (Cordylia[543]Palmarum), which is the size of the thumb, has been long in request in both the Indies. Ælian speaks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert, instead of fruit set before his Grecian guests a roasted worm taken from a plant, probably the larva of this insect, which he says the Indians esteem very delicious—a character that was confirmed by some of the Greeks who tasted it[544]. Madam Merian has figured one of these larvæ, and says that the natives of Surinam roast andeat them as something very exquisite[545]. A friend of mine, who has resided a good deal in the West Indies, where the palm-grub is calledGrugru, informs me that the late Sir John La Forey, who was somewhat of an epicure, was extremely fond of it when properly cooked.
The larvæ also of the larger species of the capricorn tribe (Cerambyx, L.Longicornes, Latr.) are accounted very great delicacies in many countries; and the Cossus of Pliny, which he tells us the Roman epicures fattened with flour[546], most probably belonged to this tribe. Linné indeed, following the opinion of Ray[547], supposes the caterpillar of the great goat-moth, the anatomy of which has been so wonderfully traced by the eye and pencil of the incomparable Lyonet, to be the Cossus. But there seems a strong reason against this opinion; for Linné's Cossus lives most commonly in the willow, Pliny's in the oak; and the former is a very disagreeable, ugly and fetid larva, not very likely to attract the Roman epicures. Probably they were the larvæ ofPrionus coriarius, which I have myself extracted from the oak, or of one of its congeners[548]. The grub ofP. damicornis,which is of the thickness of a man's finger, is eaten at Surinam, in America, and in the West Indies, both by whites and blacks, who empty, wash, and roast them, and find them delicious[549]. Mr. Hall informs me, that in Jamaica this grub is calledMacauco, and is in request at the principal tables. A similar insect is dressed at Mauritius under the name ofMoutac, which the whites as well as Negroes eat greedily[550]. The larva ofP. cervicornisis, according to Linné, held in equal estimation, and that ofAcanthocinus Tribuluswhen roasted forms an article of food in Africa[551]. It is probable that all the species of this genus might be safely eaten, as well as many other grubs ofColeoptera; and although I do not feel disposed to recommend with Reaumur[552], that the larvæ ofOryctes nasicornisshould be sought for "dans les couches de fumier," yet I think with Dr. Darwin[553], that those of the cockchafer which feed upon the roots of grass, or the perfect insects themselves, which, if we may judge from the eagerness with which cats, and turkeys and other birds devour them, are no despicablebonne bouche, might be added to ourentremets. This would be one means of keeping down the numbers of these occasionally destructive animals.
In the next order of insects, theOrthoptera, the gryllus, or locust tribe, as they are the greatest destroyers of food, so as some recompense they furnish a considerable supply of it to numerous nations. They are recorded to have done this from the most remote antiquity,some Ethiopian tribes having been named from this circumstanceAcridophagi(locust-eaters)[554]. Pliny also relates that they were in high esteem as meat amongst the Parthians[555]. Hasselquist, in reply to some inquiries which he made on this subject with respect to the Arabs, was informed that at Mecca, when there was a scarcity of corn, as a substitute for flour they would grind locusts in their hand-mills, or pound them in stone mortars; that they mixed this flour with water into a dough, and made their cakes of it, which they baked like their other bread. He adds, that it is not unusual for them to eat locusts when there is no famine; but then they boil them first a good while in water, and afterwards stew them with butter into a kind of fricassee of no bad flavour[556]. Leo Africanus, as quoted by Bochart, gives a similar account[557]. Sparrman informs us that the Hottentots are highly rejoiced at the arrival of the locusts in their country, although they destroy all its verdure, eating them in such quantities as to get visibly fatter than before, and making of their eggs a brown or coffee-coloured soup. He also relates a curious notion which they have with respect to the origin of the locusts—that they proceed from the good will of a great master-conjuror a long way to the north, who, having removed the stone from the mouth of a certain deep pit, lets loose these animals to be food for them[558]. This is not unlike the account given by the author of the Apocalypse, of the origin of the symbolical locusts, which are said to ascend upon an angel's opening the pit of the abyss[559]. Clenard,in his letters quoted by Bochart, says that they bring waggon-loads of locusts to Fez, as a usual article of food[560]. Major Moor informs me, that when the cloud of locusts noticed in a former letter visited the Mahratta country, the common people salted and ate them. This was anciently the custom with many of the African nations, some of whom also smoked them[561]. They appear even to have been an article of food offered for sale in the markets of Greece[562]; and on a subject so well known, to quote no other writers, Jackson observes that, when he was in Barbary in 1799, dishes of locusts were generally served up at the principal tables and esteemed a great delicacy. They are preferred by the Moors to pigeons; and a person may eat a platefull of two or three hundred without feeling any ill effects. They usually boil them in water half an hour, (having thrown away the head, wings and legs,) then sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and fry them, adding a little vinegar[563].—From this string of authorities you will readily see how idle was the controversy concerning the locusts which formed part of the sustenance of John the Baptist, agreeing with Hasselquist[564], that they could be nothing but the animal locust, so common a food in the East; and how apt even learned men are to perplex a plain question, from ignorance of the customs of other countries.
In thehemipterousorder of insects, none are more widely dispersed, or (if you will forgive me a pun) havemade more noise in the world, than theCicadatribe. From the time of Homer, who compares the garrulity of age to the chirping of these insects[565], they have been celebrated by the poets; and Anacreon, as you well know, has inscribed a very beautiful little ode to them. We learn from Aristotle, that these insects were eaten by the polished Greeks, and accounted very delicious. The worm (larva), he says, lives in the earth where it takes its growth; that it then becomes aTettigometra(pupa), when he observes they are most delicious, just before they burst from their covering. From this state they change to theTettixorCicada, when the males at first have the best flavour; but after impregnation the females are preferred on account of their white eggs[566]. Athenæus also and Aristophanes mention their being eaten; and Ælian is extremely angry with the men of his age that an animal sacred to the Muses should be strung, sold, and greedily devoured[567]. Pliny tells us that the nations of the East, even the Parthians, whose wealth was abundant, use them as food[568]. The imago of theCicada septemdecimis still eaten by the Indians in America, who pluck off the wings and boil them[569]. This ancient Greek taste forCicadæseems now gone out of fashion, at least travellers do not notice it: but perhaps if it were revived in those countries where the insects are to be found, for they inhabit only warm climates[570], it would be ascertained that so polished a people did not relish them without reason.
No insects are more numerous in this island than the caterpillars ofLepidoptera: if these could be used in aid of the stock of food in times of scarcity, it might subserve the double purpose of ridding us of a nuisance, and relieving the public pressure. Reaumur suggests this mode of diminishing the numbers of destructive caterpillars, speaking of that ofPlusia Gamma, a moth which did such infinite mischief in France in the year 1735[571]. If however we were to take to eating caterpillars, I should, for my own part, be of the mind of the red-breasts, and eat only the naked ones[572]. But you will see that there is some encouragement from precedent to make a meal of the caterpillars which infest our cabbages and cauliflowers. Amongst the delicacies of a Boshies-man's table, Sparrman reckons those caterpillars from which butterflies proceed[573]. The Chinese, who waste nothing, after they have unwound the silk from the cocoons of the silkworm, send the chrysalis to table: they also eat the larva of a hawk-moth (Sphinx[574]), some of which tribe, Dr. Darwin tells us, are, in his opinion, very delicious[575]: and lastly, the natives of New Holland eat the caterpillars of a species of moth of a singular new genus, to which my friend Alexander MacLeay, Esq., has assigned characters, and, from the circumstance of its larva coming out only in the night to feed, has called itNycterobius.
The next order, theNeuroptera, will make us some amends for the meagerness of the last, as it contains the white ant tribe (Termes), which, in return for the mischief it does at certain times, affords an abundant supplyof food to some of the African nations. The Hottentots eat them boiled and raw, and soon get into good condition upon this food[576]. König, quoted by Smeathman, says that in some parts of the East Indies the natives make two holes in the nests of the white ants, one to the windward and the other to the leeward, placing at the latter opening a pot rubbed with an aromatic herb, to receive the insects driven out of their nest by a fire of stinking materials made at the former[577]. Thus they catch great quantities, of which they make with flour a variety of pastry, that they can afford to sell cheap to the poorer people. Mr. Smeathman says he has not found the Africans so ingenious in procuring or dressing them. They are content with a very small part of those that fall into the waters at the time of swarming, which they skim off with calabashes, bring large kettles full of them to their habitations, and parch them in iron pots over a gentle fire, stirring them about as is done in roasting coffee. In that state without sauce or other addition they serve them up as delicious food, and eat them by handfulls as we do comfits. He has eaten them dressed in this way several times, and thought them delicate, nourishing and wholesome, being sweeter than the grub of the weevil of the palms, (Cordylia Palmarum,) and resembling in taste sugared cream or sweet almond paste[578]. The female ant, in particular, is supposed by the Hindoos to be endowed with highly nutritive properties, and, we are told by Mr. Broughton, was carefullysought after and preserved for the use of the debilitated Surjee Rao, prime-minister of Scindia chief of the Mahrattas[579].
TheHymenopteraorder also furnishes a few articles to add to this head. I do not allude to the nectar which the bees collect for us. But perhaps you do not suspect that bees themselves in some places serve for food, yet Knox tells us that they are eaten in Ceylon[580]:—an ungrateful return for their honey and wax which I would on no account recommend. Piso speaks of yellow ants calledCupiáinhabiting Brazil, the abdomen of which many used for food, as well as a larger species under the name ofTama-joura[581]; which account is confirmed by Humboldt, who informs us that ants are eaten by the Marivatanos and Margueritares, mixed with resin for sauce. Ants, I speak from experience, have no unpleasant flavour; they are very agreeably acid, and the taste of the trunk and abdomen is different; so that I am not so much surprised as Mr. Consett seems to have been at the avidity with which the young Swede mentioned by him sat down to the siege of an ants' nest[582]. This author states, that in some parts of Sweden ants are distilled along with rye, to give a flavour to the inferior kinds of brandy[583].—Under this head may not improperly be mentioned several galls the product of different species of gall-flies (Cynips), particularly those found on some kind of Sage, viz.Salvia pomifera,S. triloba, andS. officinalis, which are very juicy like apples, and crowned with rudiments of leaves resembling the calyx of that fruit. Theyare esteemed in the Levant for their aromatic and acid flavour, especially when prepared with sugar, and form a considerable article of commerce from Scio to Constantinople, where they are regularly exposed in the market[584]. The galls of ground-ivy have also been eaten in France; but Reaumur, who tasted them, is doubtful whether they will ever rank with good fruits[585].
To theDipteraorder, as a source of food, man can scarcely be said to be under any obligation; the larva ofTyrophaga Casei, which is so commonly found in cheese, being the only one ever eaten—a dainty as some think it, of whom you will perhaps say with Scopoli, "quibus has delicias non invideo[586]."
The orderAptera, now that the Crustacea are excluded, does not much more abound in esculent insects than the Diptera. The only species which have tempted the appetite of man in this order are the cheese-mite (Acarus Siro)—lice, which are eaten by the Hottentots and natives of the western coast of Africa, who from their love of this game, which they not only collect themselves from their well storedcapitalpasture, but employ their wives in the chase, have been sometimes called Phthirophagi[587]. Insects of the classArachnida, which you will think still more repulsive than the last tribe, form an article in Sparrman's list of the Boshies-man's dainties[588]; and Labillardiere tells us that the inhabitants of New Caledonia seek for and eat with avidity large quantities of a spider nearly an inch long (which he callsAranea edulis), and which they roast over the fire[589]. Even individuals amongst the more polished nations of Europe are recorded as having a similar taste; so that, if you could rise above vulgar prejudices, you would in all probability find them a most delicious morsel. If you require precedents, Reaumur tells us of a young lady who when she walked in her grounds never saw a spider that she did not take and crack upon the spot[590]. Another female, the celebrated Anna Maria Schurman, used to eat them like nuts, which she affirmed they much resembled in taste, excusing her propensity by saying that she was born under the sign Scorpio[591]. If you wish for the authority of the learned, Lalande the celebrated French astronomer was, as Latreille witnessed[592], equally fond of these delicacies. And lastly, if not content with taking them seriatim you should feel desirous of eating them by handfulls, you may shelter yourself under the authority of the German immortalized by Rösel[593], who used to spread them upon his bread like butter, observing that he found them very useful, "um sich auszulaxiren."—These edibleApteraandArachnidaare all sufficiently disgusting: but we feel our nausea quite turned into horror when we read in Humboldt, that he has seen the Indian children drag out of the earth centipedes eighteen inches long and more than half an inch broad, and devour them[594].
After all I have said, you may perhaps still feel a prejudice against insects as food; but I think, when you recollectthat Oberon and his queen Titania, that renowned personage Robin Goodfellow, "with all the fairy elves that be," number insects amongst their choicest cates, you will no longer be heretical in this article, but yield with a good grace; and as a reward I will copy out for you a beautiful poetical description of Oberon's feast, which was lately pointed out to me by a learned bibliographical friend, John Crosse, Esq. of Hull, in Herrick'sHesperides, 1658.