Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 24

Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta Cicadae.[874]

Moufet says: "The Cicadae, abounding in the end of spring, do foretel a sickly year to come, not that they are the cause of putrefaction in themselves, but only shew plenty of putrid matter to be, when there is such store of them appear. Oftentimes their coming and singing doth portend the happy state of things: so also says Theocritus. Niphus saith that what year but few of them are to be seen, they presage dearness of victuals, and scarcity of all things else....

"The Egyptians, by a Cicada painted, understood a priest and an holy man; the latter makers of hieroglyphics sometimes will have them to signifie musicians, sometimes pratlers or talkative companions, but very fondly. How ever the matter be, the Cicada hath sung very well of herself, in my judgement, in this following distich:

Although I am an insect very small, Yet with great virtue am endow'd withall."[875]

Sir G. Staunton, in his account of China, remarks: "The shops of Hai-tien, in addition to necessaries, abounded in toys and trifles, calculated to amuse the rich and idle of both s.e.xes, even to cages containing insects, such as the noisy Cicada, and a large species of the Gryllus."[876]

S. Wells Williams tells us that the Chinese boys often capture the male Cicada of their country, and tie a straw around the abdomen, so as to irritate the sounding apparatus, and carry it through the streets in this predicament, to the great annoyance of every one, for the stridulous sound of this insect is of deafening loudness.[877]

When in Quincy, Illinois, in the summer of 1864, I was shown by a boy a toy, which he called a "Locust," with which he imitated the loud rattling noise of the _Cicada septemdecim_ with great accuracy. It consisted of a horse-hair tied to the end of a short stick, and looped in a cap of stiff writing-paper placed over the hole of a spool. To make the sound, then, the toy was whirled rapidly through the air, when the stiff paper acted as a sounding-board to the vibrating hair.

At Surinam, Madame Merian tells us, the noise of the _Cicada tibicen_ is still supposed to resemble the sound of a harp or lyre, and hence called the _Lierman_--the harper.[878] Another species, in Ceylon, which makes the forest re-echo with a long-sustained noise so curiously resembling that of a cutler's wheel, has acquired the highly appropriate name of the _Knife-grinder_.[879]

It is said of our _Cicada septemdecim_, the so-called, but very improperly, "Seventeen-year Locust," that, when they first leave the earth, when they are plump and full of juices, they have been made use of in the manufacture of soap.

The larva of a Chinese species of Cicada, the _Flata limbata_, which scarcely exceeds the domestic fly in size, forms a sort of grease, which adheres to the branches of trees and hardens into wax. In autumn the natives sc.r.a.pe this substance, which they call _Pela_, from off the trees, melt, purify, and form it into cakes. It is white and glossy in appearance, and, when mixed with oil, is used to make candles, and is said to be superior to the common wax for use. The physicians employ it in several diseases; and the Chinese, as we are informed by the Abbe Grosier, when they are about to speak in public, or when any occasion is likely to occur on which it may be necessary to have a.s.surance and resolution, eat an ounce of it to prevent swoonings or palpitations of the heart.[880]

On the large cheese-like cakes of this wax, hanging in the grocers' and tallow-chandlers' shops at Hankow, are often seen the inscription written: "It mocks at the frost, and rivals the snow." The price, in 1858, was forty dollars a picul, or about fifteen pence a pound.[881]

The Greeks, notwithstanding their veneration for the Cicada, made these insects an article of food, and accounted them delicious. Aristotle says, the larva, when it is grown in the earth, and become a tettigometra (pupa), is the sweetest; when changed to the tettix, the males at first have the best flavor, but after impregnation the females are preferred, on account of their white ova.[882] Athenaeus and Aristophanes also mention their being eaten; and aelian is extremely angry with the men of his age that an animal sacred to the Muses should be strung, sold, and greedily devoured.[883] The _Cicada septemdecim_, Mr. Collinson in 1763 said, was eaten by the Indians of America, who plucked off the wings and boiled them.[884]

Osbeck tells us that the _Cicada chinensis_, along with the _Buprestis maxima_, and several species of b.u.t.terflies, is made an article of commerce by the Chinese, being sold in their shops.[885]

Fulgoridae--Lantern-flies.

The Lantern-fly, _Fulgora lanternaria_ of Linnaeus, found in many parts of South America, is supposed to emit a vivid light from the large hood, or lantern, which projects from its body, and to be frequently serviceable to benighted travelers; hence the specific name, _lanternaria_. This story originated about a century and a half ago, from the work of the celebrated Madame Merian, who lived several years in Surinam. Her account contains the following anecdote: "The Indians once brought me, before I knew that they shone by night, a number of these Lantern-flies, which I shut up in a wooden box. In the night they made such a noise that I awoke in a fright, and ordered a light to be brought; not knowing whence the noise proceeded. As soon as we found that it came from the box, we opened it; but were still much more alarmed, and let it fall to the ground, in a fright at seeing a flame of fire come out of it; and as so many animals as came out, so many flames of fire appeared. When we found this to be the case, we recovered from our fright, and again collected the insects, highly admiring their splendid appearance."[886]

Dr. Darwin, in a note to some lines relative to luminous insects, in his poem, the Loves of the Plants, makes Madame Merian affirm that she drew and finished her figure of the insect by its own light. This story is without foundation.

The Indians of South America say and believe that the Lyerman, _Cicada tibicen_, is changed into the Lantern-fly; and that the latter emits a light similar to that of a lantern.[887]

This story of the Lantern-fly being luminous is the more remarkable since the veracity of its author is unimpeached. She doubtless has confounded it with the _Cucujus_, _Elater noctilucus_. Donovan, however, states that the Chinese Lantern-fly, _Fulgora candelaria_, has an illuminated appearance in the night.[888]

From the loud noise the Lantern-fly makes at night, which is said to be somewhat between the grating of a razor-grinder and the clang of cymbals, it is called by the Dutch, in Guiana, _Scare-sleep_.[889]

Ligon, in his History of Barbados, printed in 1673, probably refers to this insect, when he says: "They lye all day in holes and hollow trees, and as soon as the Sun is down they begin their tunes, which are neither singing nor crying, but the shrillest voyces that ever I heard; nothing can be so nearly resembled to it, as the mouths of a pack of small beagles at a distance." This author, however, thought this sound by no means unpleasant. "So lively and chirping," he continues, "the noise is, as nothing can be more delightful to the ears, if there were not too much of it, for the musick hath no intermission till morning, and then all is husht."[890]

Aphidae--Plant-lice.

The Aphides are remarkable for secreting a sweet, viscid fluid, known by the name of Honey-dew, the origin of which has puzzled the world for ages. Pliny says "it is either a certaine sweat of the skie, or some unctuous gellie proceeding from the starres, or rather a liquid purged from the aire when it purifyeth itself."[891]

Amyntas, in his Stations of Asia, quoted by Athenaeus, gives a curious account of the manner of collecting this article, which was supposed to be superior to the nectar of the Bee, in various parts of the East, particularly in Syria. In some cases they gathered the leaves of trees, chiefly of the linden and oak, for on these the dew was most abundantly found,[892] and pressed them together. Others allowed it to drop from the leaves and harden into globules, which, when desirous of using, they broke, and, having poured water on them in wooden bowls, drank the mixture. In the neighborhood of Mount Lebanon, Honey-dew was collected plentifully several times in the year, being caught by spreading skins under the trees, and shaking into them the liquid from the leaves. The Dew was then poured into vessels, and stored away for future use. On these occasions the peasants used to exclaim, "Zeus has been raining honey!"[893]

In the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, we read: "_Galen_ saith, that there fell such great quant.i.ty of this Dew (in his time) in his Countrey of _Pergamus_, that the Countrey people (greatly delighted therein) gave thankes therefor to _Iupiter_. _aelia.n.u.s_ writeth also that there fell such plenty thereof in _India_, in the Region which is called _Prasia_, and so moistened the Gra.s.se, that the Sheepe, Kine, and Goates feeding thereon, yeelded Milke sweete like Hony, which was very pleasing to drinke. And when they used that Milke in any disease, they needed not to put any Hony therein, to the end it should not corrupt in the stomacke: as it is appointed in Hecticke Feauers, Consumption, Tisickes, and for others that are ulcered in the intestines, as is confirmed by the Histories of _Portugall_."[894]

The Aphides, like many other insects, sometimes migrate in clouds; and among other instances on record of these migrations, Mr. White informs us that about three o'clock in the afternoon of the first of August, 1785, the people of the village of Selborne were surprised by a shower of Aphides which fell in those parts. Persons who walked in the street at this time found themselves covered with them, and they settled in such numbers in the gardens and on the hedges as to blacken every leaf.

Mr. White's annuals were thus all discolored with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days afterward. These swarms, he remarks, were then no doubt in a state of emigration, and might have come from the great hop-plantations of Kent and Suss.e.x, the wind being all that day in the east. They were observed at the same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from Farnham to Alton.[895] A similar emigration of these insects Mr. Kirby once witnessed, to his great annoyance, when traveling later in the year in the Isle of Ely. The air was so full of them, that they were incessantly flying into his eyes and nostrils, and his clothes were covered by them; and in 1814, in the autumn, the Aphides were so abundant for a few days in the vicinity of Ipswich, as to be noticed with surprise by the most incurious observers.[896] Neither Mr. White nor Mr. Kirby informs us what particular species formed these immense flights, but it is most probable they belonged to the Hop-fly, _Aphis humuli_.

Reaumur tells us that in the Levant, Persia, and China, they use the galls of a particular species of _Aphis_ for dyeing silk crimson.[897]

In England, the mischief caused by the Hop-fly, _Aphis humuli_, in some seasons, as in 1802, has brought the duty of hops down from 100,000 to 14,000.

A quite common, though erroneous, belief in England is, that Aphides are produced, or brought by, a northern or eastern wind. Thomson has fallen into the error; he has also confounded the mischief of caterpillars with that of the Aphis:

For oft, engendered by the hazy north, Myriads on myriads insect armies warp, Keen in the poison'd breeze, and wasteful eat Through buds and bark into the blackened core Their eager way. A feeble race! Yet oft The sacred sons of vengeance, on whose course Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year.

Coccidae--s.h.i.+eld-lice.

The Kermes-dye, or scarlet, made from the _Coccus ilicis_ of Linnaeus, an insect found chiefly on a species of oak, the _Quercus ilex_, in the Levant, France, Spain, and other parts of the world, was known in the East in the earliest ages, even before the time of Moses, and was a discovery of the Phnicians in Palestine, who also first employed the murex and buccinum for the purpose of dyeing.

_Tola_ or _Thola_ was the ancient Phnician name for this insect and dye, which was used by the Hebrews, and even by the Syrians; for it is employed by the Syrian translator.[898] Among the Jews, after their captivity, the Aramaean _zehori_ was more common. This dye was known also to the Egyptians in the time of Moses; and it is most probable that the color mentioned in Exodus[899] as one of the three which were prescribed for the curtains of the tabernacle, and for the "holy garments" of Aaron, and which the English translators have rendered by the word _scarlet_ (not the color now so called, which was not known in James the First's reign when the Bible was translated), was no other than the blood-red color dyed from the _Coccus ilicis_.

The Arabs received the name _Kermes_ or _Alkermes_ for the insect and dye, from Armenia and Persia, where the insect was indigenous, and had long been known; and that name banished the old name in the East, as the name scarlet has in the West. For the first part of this a.s.sertion we must believe the Arabs. The Kermes, however, were not indigenous to Arabia, as the Arabs appear to have no name for them. To the Greeks this dye was known under the name of _Coccus_, as appears from Dioscorides, and other Greek writers.[900]

From the epithets _kermes_ and _coccus_, and that of _vermiculus_ or _vermiculum_, given to the Kermes in the middle ages, when they were ascertained to be insects, have sprung the Latin _coccineus_, the French _carmesin_, _carmine_, _cramoisi_ and _vermeil_, the Italian _chermisi_, _cremisino_, and _chermesino_, and our _crimson_ and _vermilion_.

The imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries were derived from the Kermes; and, in short, previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was the material universally used for dyeing the most brilliant red then known. At the present time the Kermes are only gathered in Europe by the peasantry of the provinces in which they are found, but they still continue to be employed as of old in a great part of India and Persia.[901]

Brookes says the women gather the harvest of Kermes insects before sunrise, tearing them off with their nails; and, for fear there should be any loss from the hatching of the insects, they sprinkle them with vinegar. They then lay them in the sun to dry, where they acquire a red color.[902]

The scarlet grain of Poland, _Coccus polonicus_, found on the German knot-gra.s.s or perennial knawel (_Scleranthus perennis_), was at one time collected in large quant.i.ties in the Ukraine and other provinces of Poland (here under the name of _Czerwiec_), and also in the great duchy of Lithuania. But though much esteemed and still employed by the Turks and Armenians for dyeing wool, silk, and hair, as well as for staining the nails of women's fingers, it is now rarely used in Europe except by the Polish peasantry. A similar neglect has attended the Coccus found on the roots of the Burnet (_Poterium sanguisorba_, Linn.), which was used, particularly by the Moors, for dyeing wool and silk a rose color; and the _Coccus uvae-ursi_, which with alum affords a crimson dye.[903]

Cochineal, the _Coccus cacti_, is doubtless the most valuable product for which the dyer is indebted to insects, and with the exception perhaps of indigo, the most important of dyeing materials. It is found on a kind of fig, called in Mexico, where the insect is produced in any quant.i.ty, Nopal or Tuna, which generally has been supposed to be the _Cactus cochinilifer_, but according to Humboldt is unquestionably a distinct species, which bears fruit internally white.

Cochineal was discovered by the Spaniards, on their first arrival in Mexico, about the year 1518; but who first remarked this valuable production, and made it known in Europe, Mr. Beckman says, he has been unable to discover. Some a.s.sert that the native Mexicans, before the landing of Cortes, were acquainted with cochineal, which they employed in painting their houses and dyeing their clothes; but others maintain the contrary. Be that as it may, however, the Spanish ministry, as early as the year 1523, as Herrera informs us, ordered Cortes to take measures for multiplying this valuable commodity; and soon after it must have begun to be quite an object of commerce, for Guicciardini, who died in 1589, mentions it among the articles procured then by the merchants of Antwerp from Spain.

Professor Beckman, who has given the subject particular attention, thinks that with the first cochineal, a true account of the manner in which it was procured must have reached Europe, and become publicly known. Acosta in 1530, and Herrera in 1601, as well as Hernandez and others, gave so true and complete a description of it, that the Europeans could entertain no doubt respecting its origin. The information of these authors, however, continues this gentleman, was either overlooked or considered as false, and disputes arose whether cochineal was insects or worms, or the berries or seeds of certain plants. The Spanish name _grana_, confounded with _granum_, may have given rise to this contest.

Ill.u.s.trative of this great difference of opinion, Mr. Beckman narrates the following anecdote: "A Dutchman, named Melchior de Ruusscher, affirmed in a society, from oral information he had received in Spain, that cochineal was small animals. Another person, whose name he has not made known, maintained the contrary with so much heat and violence, that the dispute at length ended in a bet. Ruusscher charged a Spaniard, one of his friends, who was going to Mexico, to procure for him in that country authentic proofs of what he had a.s.serted. These proofs, legally confirmed in October, 1725, by the court of justice in the city of Antiquera, in the valley of Oaxaca, arrived at Amsterdam in the autumn of the year 1726. I have been informed that Ruusscher upon this got possession of the sum betted, which amounted to the whole property of the loser; but that, after keeping it a certain time, he again returned it, deducting only the expenses he had been at in procuring the evidence, and in causing it to be published. It formed a small octavo volume, with the following t.i.tle printed in red letters: _The History of Cochineal proved by Authentic doc.u.ments_. These proofs sent from New-Spain are written in Dutch, French, and Spanish."[904]

Among the important discoveries made by accident, the following in the history of Cochineal may be instanced: "The well-known Cornelius Drebbel, who was born at Alcmaar, and died at London in 1634, having placed in his window an extract of Cochineal, made with boiling water, for the purpose of filling a thermometer, some aqua-regia dropped into it from a phial, broken by accident, which stood above it, and converted the purple dye into a most beautiful dark red. After some conjectures and experiments, he discovered that the tin by which the window frame was divided into squares had been dissolved by the aqua-regia, and was the cause of this change. He communicated his observation to Kuffelar, an ingenious dyer at Leyden. The latter brought the discovery to perfection, and employed it some years alone in his dye-house, which gave rise to the name of Kuffelar's color."[905]

That innocent cosmetic, so much used by the ladies, and commonly known by the French term Rouge, is no other than a preparation of Cochineal.[906]

Kermes-berries, _Coccus ilicis_, and Cochineal, _C. cacti_, Geoffroy says, "are esteemed to be greatly cordial and sudorific, being very full of volatile salt. They are given also to prevent abortion from any strain or hurt."[907]

_Lac_ is the produce of an insect supposed by Amatus Lusita.n.u.s to be a kind of ant, and by others a bee, but now ascertained to be a species belonging to the Coccidae--the _Coccus ficus_ or _C. lacca_. It is collected from various trees in India, where it is found so abundantly, that, were the consumption ten times greater than it is, it could be readily supplied.

Lac is known in Europe by the different appellations of _stick-lac_, when in its natural state, adhering to, and often completely surrounding, for five or six inches, the twigs on which it is produced by the insects contained in its cells; _seed-lac_, when broken into small pieces, garbled, and the greater part of the coloring matter extracted by water; when it appears in a granulated form; _lump-lac_, when melted and made into cakes; and _sh.e.l.l-lac_, when strained and formed into transparent laminae.

Lac, in its different forms, is made use of in the manufacture of varnishes, j.a.panned ware, sealing-wax, beads, rings, arm-bracelets, necklaces, water-proof hats, etc., etc. Mixed with fine sand it forms grindstones; and added to lamp or ivory black, being first dissolved in water with the addition of a little borax, it composes an ink not easily acted upon by dampness or water. It has been applied also to a still more important purpose, originally suggested by Dr. Roxburgh about the year 1790--that of a subst.i.tute for Cochineal in dyeing scarlet.[908]

From this suggestion, under the direction of Dr. Bancroft, large quant.i.ties of a substance termed _lac-lake_, consisting of the coloring matter of stick-lac precipitated from an alkaline lixivium by alum, were manufactured at Calcutta and sent to England, where at first the consumption was so great, that, according to the statement of Dr.

Bancroft, in 1806, and the two following years, the sales of it at the India House equaled in point of coloring matter half a million of pounds' weight of Cochineal. Soon after this, a new preparation of lac color, under the name of _lac-dye_, was subst.i.tuted for the lac-lake, and with such advantage, that in a few months 14,000 were saved by the East India Company in the purchase of scarlet cloths dyed with this color and Cochineal conjointly, and without any inferiority in the color obtained.[909]

The Coccidae, although they furnish an invaluable dye and many articles of commerce, are among the most hurtful of insects in gardens and hot-houses. In 1843, the orange-trees of the Azores or Western Islands were nearly entirely destroyed by the _Coccus Hesperidum_; and in Fayal, an island which had usually exported twelve thousand chests of oranges annually, not one was exported.[910]