Dr. Livingstone states that in the valley of Quango, S. Africa, the natives dig large white larvae out of the damp soil adjacent to their streams, and use them as a relish to their vegetable diet.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, there was published at Florence, by Prof. Gerbi, the history of a remarkable insect which he names Curculio anti-odontalgicus. This insect, as he assures us, not only in the name he has given it, but also in an account of the many cures effected by it, is endowed with the singular property of curing the toothache. He tells us, that if fourteen or fifteen of the larvae be rubbed between the thumb and fore-finger, till the fluid is absorbed, and if a carious aching tooth be but touched with the thumb or finger thus prepared, the pain will be removed; a finger thus prepared, he says in conclusion, will, unless it be used for tooth-touching, retain its virtue for a year! This remarkable insect is only found on a nondescript plant, the Carduus spinosissimus.
It is said, also by Prof. Gerbi, that the Tuscan peasants have long been acquainted with several insects which furnish a charm for the toothache, as the Curculio jaceae, C. Bacchus, and Carabus chrysocephalus.
The curious facts contained in the following quotation, from Chambers' Book of Days, were among the first that led me to attempt the present compilation. The scientific name of the insect here mentioned is, in the opinion of Prof. Gill and other scientists, a misprint for Rhynchitus auratus, and, following this decision, I have here placed it under the Curculionidae. — "A lawsuit between the inhabitants of the Commune of St. Julien and a coleopterous insect, now known to naturalists as the Rhynchitus aureus, lasted for more than forty-two years. At length the inhabitants proposed to compromise the matter by giving up, in perpetuity, to the insects, a fertile part of the district for their sole use and benefit. Of course the advocate of the animals demurred to the proposition, but the court, overruling the demurrer, appointed assessors to survey the land, and, it proving to be well wooded and watered, and every way suitable for the insects, ordered the conveyance to be engrossed in due form and executed. The unfortunate people then thought they had got rid of a trouble imposed upon them by their litigious fathers and grandfathers; but they were sadly mistaken. It was discovered that there had formerly been a mine or quarry of an ochreous earth, used as a pigment, in the land conveyed to the insects, and though the quarry had long since been worked out and exhausted, some one possessed an ancient right of way to it, which if exercised would be greatly to the annoyance of the new proprietors. Consequently the contract was vitiated, and the whole process commenced de novo. How or when it ended, the mutilation of the recording documents prevents us from knowing; but it is certain that the proceedings commenced in the year 1445, and that they had not concluded in 1487. So what with the insects, the lawyers, and the church, the poor inhabitants must have been pretty well fleeced. During the whole period of a process, religious processions and other expensive ceremonies that had to be well paid for, were strictly enjoined. Besides, no district could commence a process of this kind unless all its arrears of tithes were paid up; and this circumstance gave rise to the well-known French legal maxim — 'The first step toward getting rid of locusts is the payment of tithes,' an adage that in all probability was susceptible of more meanings than one."
Cerambycidae — Musk beetles.
Moufet says: "The Cerambyx, knowing that his legs are weak, twists his horns about the branch of a tree, and so he hangs at ease. . . . They thrust upon us some German fables, as many as say it flies only, and when it is weary it falls to the earth and presently dies. Those that are slaves to tales, render this reason for it: Terambus, a satyrist, did not abstain from quipping of the Muses, whereupon they transformed him into a beetle called Cerambyx, and that deservedly, to endure a double punishment, for he hath legs weak that he goes lame, and like a thief he hangs on a tree. Antonius Liberalis, lib. i. of his Metamorphosis, relates the matter in these words: The Muses in anger transformed Terambus because he reproached them, and he was made a Cerambyx that feeds on wood," etc.
A large species of longicorn beetles, the Acanthocinus aedilis, is the well-known Timerman of Sweden and Lapland; an insect which the natives of these countries regard with a kind of superstitious veneration. Its presence is thought to be the presage of good fortune, and it is as carefully protected and cherished as storks are by the peasantry of the Low Countries.
It has been found that the common cinnamon-colored Musk-beetle, Cerambyx moschatus, when dried and reduced to powder, and made use of as a vesicatory, in the manner of the officinal Cantharides, produces a similar effect, and in as short a space of time.
The Prionus damicornis is a native of many parts of America and the West Indies, where its larva, a grub about three and a half inches in length, and of the thickness of the little finger, is in great request as an article of food, being considered by epicures as one of the greatest delicacies of the New World. We are informed by authors of the highest respectability, that some people of fortune in the West Indies keep negroes for the sole purpose of going into the woods in quest of these admired larvae, who scoop them out of the trees in which they reside. Dr. Browne, in his History of Jamaica, informs us that they are chiefly found in the plum and silk-cotton trees (Bombax). They are commonly called by the name of Macauco, or Macokkos. The mode of dressing them is first to open and wash them, and then carefully broil them over a charcoal fire.
Sir Hans Sloane tells us the Indians of Jamaica boil them in their soups, pottages, olios, and pepper-pots, and account them of delicious flavor, much like, but preferable to, marrow; and the negroes of this island roast them slightly at the fire, and eat them with bread.
A similar larva is dressed at Mauritius under the name of Moulac, which the whites as well as the negroes eat greedily. According to Linnaeus, the larva of the Prionus cervicornis is held in equal estimation; and that of the Acanthocinus tribulus when roasted forms an article of food in Africa.
The Cossus of Pliny belonged most probably to this tribe, or to the Lucanidae.
Wanley knew a nun in the monastery of St. Clare, who at the sight of a beetle was affected in the following strange manner. It happened that some young girls, knowing her disposition, threw a beetle into her bosom, which when she perceived, she immediately fell into a swoon, deprived of all sense, and remained four hours in cold sweats. She did not regain her strength for many days after, but continued trembling and pale.
Galerucidae — Turnip-fly, etc.
The striped Turnip-beetle, Haltica nemorum, commonly called the Turnip-fly, Turnip-flea, Earth-flea beetle, Black-jack, etc., is a well known species from the ravages the perfect insect commits upon the turnip. In Devonshire, England, in the year 1786, the loss caused by these insects alone was valued at £100,000 sterling. And in the spring of 1837, the vines in the neighborhood of Montpellier were attacked to so great an extent by another species, Haltica oleracea, in the perfect state, that fears were entertained for the plants, and religious processions were instituted for the purpose of exorcising the insects.
Anatolius says that if the seeds of radishes, turnips, and other esculents be sown in the hide of a tortoise, the plants when grown will not be eaten by the fly, nor hurt by noxious animals or birds. Paladius has also related the method of drying the seeds in the hide of this animal, and of sowing them.
ORDER II. EUPLEXOPTERA.
Forficulidae — Ear-wigs.
The vulgar opinion that the Ear-wig, Forficula auricularia, seeks to introduce itself into the ear of human beings, and causes much injury to that organ, is very ancient, but not founded on fact, for they are perfectly harmless. To this opinion the names of this insect in almost all European languages point: as in English, Ear-wig (from Anglo-Saxon eare, the ear, and wigga, a worm; hence, also, our word wiggle), in French, Perce-oreille, and in the German, Ohrwurm. But, according to some writers, these names arose from the shape of the wing when expanded, which then resembles the human ear; and ear-wig might easily be a corruption of ear-wing.
Swift, in the following lines, introduces an "Ear-wig, (probably a Curculio) in a plum," as though in allusion to some superstition:
Doll never flies to cut her lace, Or throw cold water in her face, Because she heard a sudden drum, Or found an ear-wig in a plum.
"Oil of Ear-wigs," says Dr. James, "is good to strengthen the nerves under convulsive motions, by rubbing it on the temples, wrists, and nostrils. These insects, being dried, pulverized, and mixed with the urine of a hare, are esteemed to be good for deafness, being introduced into the ear."
In August, 1755, in the parishes adjacent to Stroud, it is said there were such quantities of Ear-wigs, that they destroyed not only the fruits and flowers, but the cabbages, though of full growth. The houses, especially the old wooden buildings, were swarming with them: the cracks and crevices surprisingly full, so that they dropped out oftentimes in such multitudes as to literally cover the floor. Linen, of which they are fond, was likewise full, as was the furniture; and it was with caution any provisions could be eaten, for the cupboards and safes flocked with these little pests.
ORDER III. ORTHOPTERA.
Blattidae — Cockroaches.
Sloane tells us that the Indians of Jamaica drink the ashes of Cockroaches in physic: bruise and mix them with sugar and apply them to ulcers and cancers to suppurate; and are said also to give them to kill worms in children. Dr. James, quoting Dioscorides, Lib. II. cap. 38, remarks: "The inside of the Blatta (B. foetida, Moufet 138), which is found in bake-houses, bruised or boiled in oil, and dropped into the ears, eases the pains thereof." It is most probable the insect now called Blatta is not at all meant by either of the above gentlemen. The Blatta of Dioscorides is quite likely the Blatta of Pliny, which has been with good reason conjectured to be the modern Blaps mortisaga — the common Church-yard beetle.
In England, the hedge-hog, Erinaceus Europaeus, from its fondness for insects and its nocturnal habits, is often kept domesticated in kitchens to destroy the Cockroaches with which they are infested; and the housekeepers of Jamaica, as we are informed by Sir Hans Sloane, for the same reasons and purpose, keep large spiders in their houses. A species of monkey, Simia jacchus, and a species of lemur, L. tardigradus, are also made use of for destroying these insects, especially on board ships. Mr. Neill, in the Magazine of Natural History, in his account of the above-mentioned species of monkey, says: "By chance we observed it devouring a large Cockroach, which it had caught running along the deck of the vessel; and, from this time to nearly the end of the voyage, a space of four or five weeks, it fed almost exclusively on these insects, and contributed most effectually to rid the vessel of them. It frequently ate a score of the largest kind, which are from two to two and a half inches long, and a very great number of the smaller ones, three or four times in the course of the day. It was quite amusing to see it at its meal. When he had got hold of one of the largest Cockroaches, he held it in his fore-paws, and then invariably nipped the head off first; he then pulled out the viscera and cast them aside, and devoured the rest of the body, rejecting the dry elytra and wings, and also the legs of the insect, which are covered with short stiff bristles. The small Cockroaches he ate without such fastidious nicety."