Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 8

From the great resemblance of many species of Mantis to the leaves of the trees upon which they feed, some travelers, who have observed them, have declared that they saw the leaves of trees become living creatures, and take flight. Madame Merian informs us of a similar opinion among the Indians of Surinam, who believed these insects grew like leaves upon the trees, and when they were mature, loosened themselves and crawled, or flew away.

We find also in the works of Piso an account of insects becoming plants.

Speaking of the Mantis, that author says: "Those little animals change into a green and tender plant, which is of two hands breadth. The feet are fixed into the ground first; from these, when necessary humidity is attracted, roots grow out, and strike into the ground; thus they change by degrees, and in a short time become a perfect plant. Sometimes only the lower part takes the nature and form of a plant, while the upper part remains as before, living and movable; after some time the animal is gradually converted into a plant. In this Nature seems to operate in a circle, by a continual retrograde motion."[272]

There may be, however, much truth in this remarkable metamorphosis; for, that an insect may strike root into the earth, and, from the co-operation of heat and moisture, congenial to vegetation, produce a plant of the cryptogamic kind, cannot be disputed. Westwood states that he has seen a species of _Clavaria_, both of the undivided and branched kinds, which had sprung from insects, and were four times larger than the insects themselves. In truth, it cannot then be denied that Piso may not have seen a plant of a proportionate magnitude which had likewise grown out of a Mantis. The pupae of bees, wasps, and cicadas, have been known to become the nidus of a plant, to throw up stems from the front part of the head, and change in every respect into a vegetable, and still retain the sh.e.l.l and exterior appearance of the parent insect at the root. Specimens of these vegetated animals are frequently brought from the West Indies. Mr. Drury had a beetle in the perfect state, from every part of which small stalks and fibers sprouted forth; they were entirely different from the tufts of hair that are observed in a few Coleopterous insects, such as the _Buprestis fascicularius_ of the Cape of Good Hope, and were certainly a vegetable production.[273] Mr.

Atwood, in his account of Dominica, describes a "vegetable fly" as follows: "It is of the appearance and size of a small c.o.c.k-chafer, and buries itself in the ground, where it dies; and from its body springs up a small plant, resembling a young coffee tree, only that its leaves are smaller. The plant is often overlooked, from the supposition people have of its being no other than a coffee plant, but on examining it properly, the difference is easily distinguished.... The head, body, and feet of the insect appearing at the foot as perfect as when alive."[274]

Dr. Colin, of Philadelphia, has mentioned, also, on the authority of a missionary, a "vegetable fly," similar to the last mentioned, on the Ohio River.[275]

The inhabitants of the Sech.e.l.l Islands raise the _Mantis siccifolia_, or Dry-leaf Mantis, as an object of commerce and natural history.

Achetidae--Crickets.

In the Island of Barbados, the natives look upon the creaking chirp of a species of Cricket, to which Hughes has given the name of the _Ash-colored_ or _Sickly Cricket_, when heard in the house, as an omen of death to some one of the family.[277]

In England, also, is the Cricket's chirp sometimes looked upon as prognosticating death. "When Blonzelind expired," Gay, in his Pastoral Dirge, says,

And shrilling Crickets in the chimney cry'd.[278]

So also in Reed's Old Plays is the Cricket's cry ominous of death:

And the strange Cricket i' th' oven sings and hops.

The same superst.i.tion is found in the following line from the dipus of Dryden and Lee:

Owels, ravens, Crickets, seem the watch of death.

Gaule mentions, among other vain observations and superst.i.tious ominations thereupon, "the Cricket's chirping behind the chimney stack, or creeping on the foot-pace."[279]

Dr. Nathaniel Horne, after saying that "by the flying and crying of ravens over their houses, especially in the dusk of evening, and when one is sick, they conclude death," adds, "the same they conclude of a Cricket crying in a house where there was wont to be none."[280]

"Some sort of people," says Mr. Ramsay, in his Elminthologia, "at every turn, upon every accident, how are they therewith terrified! If but a Cricket unusually appear, or they hear but the clicking of a Death-watch, as they call it, they, or some one else in the family, shall die!"[281]

Gilbert White, the accurate naturalist of Selborne, speaking of Crickets, says: "They are the house-wife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain; and are prognostics sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck, of the death of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By being the constant companions of her solitary hours, they naturally become the objects of her superst.i.tion."[282]

The voice of the Cricket, says the Spectator, has struck more terror than the roaring of a lion.

Mrs. Bray also notices that the Cricket's chirp in England, which in almost all other countries, and in that too in some families, as will be shown hereafter, is considered a cheerful and a welcome note, the harbinger of joy,--is deemed by the peasantry ominous of sorrow and evil.[283]

"In Dumfries-s.h.i.+re," says Sir William Jardine, "it is a common superst.i.tion that if Crickets forsake a house which they have long inhabited, some evil will befall the family; generally the death of some member is portended. In like manner the presence or return of this cheerful little insect is lucky, and portends some good to the family."[284]

Melton also says,--"17. That it is a sign of death to some in that house where Crickets have been many years, if on a sudden they forsake the chimney."[285]

The departure of Crickets from a hearth where they have been heard, is, at the present time, in England, considered an omen of misfortune.[286]

From the above statements of Mr. White, Mrs. Bray, and Sir William Jardine, we learn that in England the Cricket's chirp is not always ominous of evil, but sometimes also of good luck, of joy, and of the approach of an absent lover.

A correspondent of the "Notes and Queries" mentions the Cricket's cry as foreboding good luck.[287] So also a writer for "The Mirror," remarking, it is singular that the House-cricket should by some persons be considered an unlucky, by others a lucky, inmate of the mansion. Those who hold the latter opinion, he adds, consider the destruction of these insects the means of bringing misfortunes on their habitations.[288]

Grose thus expresses this last superst.i.tion: Persons killing these insects (including the Lady-bird, before mentioned) will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune.[289]

That the belief that the appearance of Crickets in a house is a good omen, and prognosticates cheerfulness and plenty, is pretty generally entertained in England, may be inferred also from the manner in which it has been embodied by Cowper, in his address to a Cricket

Chirping on his kitchen hearth.

His words are:

Whereso'er be thine abode, Always harbinger of good.

And again in that admirable little tale of Charles d.i.c.kens, ent.i.tled "The Cricket on the Hearth," this good and happy superst.i.tion is embodied. "It's sure to bring us good fortune, John! It always has been so. To have a Cricket on the hearth is the luckiest thing in the world,"

says its heroine.

All these superst.i.tions are more or less entertained in America, brought here by the English themselves, and retained by their descendants. That the Cricket is the "harbinger of good," it gives me pleasure to say, is the most common.

Another superst.i.tion obtaining in this country, and particularly in Maryland and Virginia, is that Crickets are old folks and ought not therefore to be destroyed. This probably arose from Crickets being found about the kitchen hearth where the old folks were accustomed to sit.

Milton chose for his contemplative pleasures a spot where Crickets resorted:

Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, Far from all resort of mirth, Save the Cricket on the hearth.[290]

The learned Scaliger is said to have been particularly delighted with the chirping of these animals, and was accustomed to keep them in a box for his amus.e.m.e.nt in his study.[291]

Mrs. Taylor, the writer of a very interesting series of papers on insects for Harper's Magazine, relates that in her travels through Wales, she obtained several House-crickets in the old Castle of Caernarvon. These she carried with her, in her journeyings to and fro over the Kingdom, for several years, and at last brought them to this country, where they were liberated in the snuggest corner of a Southern hearth. Again a wanderer for many years, she went back to the old house to see how her chirping friends were coming on, but, alas! she was told by the then residents, with the utmost calmness, "they had had great difficulty in _scalding_ them out, and they hoped there was not one left on the premises!"[292]

In certain countries of Africa, Crickets are reported to const.i.tute an article of commerce. Some persons rear them, feed them in a kind of iron oven, and sell them to the natives, who are very fond of their music, thinking it induces sleep.[293] De Pauw finds some traces of the Egyptian wors.h.i.+p of the Scarabaeus in this fondness for the music of the "holy Crickets," as he calls them, of Madagascar! By the rearing of which insects, he tells us, the Africans make a living, and the rich would think themselves at enmity with heaven, if they did not preserve whole swarms in ovens constructed expressly for that purpose.[294]

The youth of Germany, Jaeger says, are extremely fond of Field-crickets, so much so, that there is scarcely a boy to be seen who has not several small boxes made expressly for keeping these insects in. So much delighted are they, too, with their music, that they carry these boxes of Crickets into their bed-rooms at night, and are soothed to sleep with their chirping lullaby.[295]

On the contrary, others, as has been before mentioned, think there is something ominous and melancholy in the Cricket's cry, and use every endeavor to banish this insect from their houses. "Lidelius tells us,"

says Goldsmith, "of a woman who was very much incommoded by Crickets, and tried, but in vain, every method of banis.h.i.+ng them from her house.

She at last accidentally succeeded; for having one day invited several guests to her house, where there was a wedding, in order to increase the festivity of the entertainment, she procured drums and trumpets to entertain them. The noise of these was so much greater than what the little animals were accustomed to, that they instantly forsook their situation, and were never heard in that mansion more."[296] Like many other noisy persons, Crickets like to hear n.o.body louder than themselves.

In the Island of Sumatra, Capt. Stuart tells me, a black Cricket is looked upon with great respect, amounting almost to adoration. It is deemed a grievous sin to kill it.

Baskets full of Field-crickets, Lopes de Gomara says, were found among the provisions of the Indians of Jamaica when they were first discovered.[297]

"The Criquet called Gryllus," says Pliny in the words of Holland, "doth mitigat catarrhs and all asperities offending the throat, if the same bee rubbed therewith: also if a man doe but touch the amygdals or almonds of the throat, with the hand wherewith he hath bruised or crushed the said Criquet, it will appease the inflamation thereof."[298]

Again, "The Cricket digged up and applied to the plase, earth and all where it lay, is very good for the ears. Nigridius," continues Pliny, "attributeth many properties to this poore creature, and esteemeth it not a little: but the Magicians much more by a faire deale: and why so?

Forsooth because it goeth, as it were, reculing backward, it pierceth and boreth a hole into the ground, and never ceaseth all night long to creake very shrill.

"The manner of hunting and catching them is this, They take a flie and tie it above the middest at the end of a long haire of one's head, and so put the said flie into the mouth of the Cricquet's hole; but first they blow the dust away with their mouth, for fear lest the flie should hide herself therein; the Cricket spies the sillie flie, seaseth upon her presently and claspeth her round, and so they are both drawne foorth together by the said haire."[299]

At the present time, children in France practice the same method of capturing Crickets for amus.e.m.e.nt; subst.i.tuting, however, an ant for the "sillie flie," and a long straw for "the haire of one's head." Hence comes the common proverb in France, _il est sot comme un grillon_. A ruse for capturing the larva of the Cicindela, now commonly practiced by entomologists, is founded on the same principle.

Pliny further says: "The Cricquets above rehea.r.s.ed, either reduced into a liniment, or else bound too, whole as they be, cureth the accident of the lap of the eare, wounds, contusions, bruises," etc.[300]

Dr. James, quoting Schroder and Dale, says: "The ashes of the Cricket (_Gryllus domesticus_) exhibited, are said to be diuretic; the expressed juice, dropped into the eyes, is a remedy for weakness of the sight, and alleviates disorders of the tonsils, if rubbed on them."[301]