Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-01-10
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Baltimore, gave the third lecture of his series
on the habits and instincts OF insects, last
night In commencing his lecture, the Doctor
humorously touched up that class Of people
who, being in the habit Of taking in knowl-
edge in homeopathic doses, are accustomed to
decry as humbug that which they cannot
comprehend. They are like the man who,
when ordered by his physician to take quart
of some unpleasant mixture, excused himself
on the score that being little man he couldn't
hold but pint
The speaker, in announcing his subject for
the evening as being the seventeen year To-
Gust, CtcGdc SRbdsndeceD., paid a handsome
tribute TO the labors of DR.. Gideon Smith, of
baltimore, who for upwards Of thirty years
has studied the habits of the locust, observing
1t In every stage of its development.
Ine locust was an anomaly amongst ms ects,
requiring seventeen years for its development.
Instances Of cases were noticed, however, in
which it was claimed that they had made
their appearance after a shorter probation,
and the opinion was advanced that swarms Of
them lap over each other, and that in the
course of time, through the climate, the cut
ting down OF forests, DC they may como to
be an annual insect. The locust, like all
other insects, has its four stages of develop
ment LIST, the egg I'd, the grub or Larvae
81, the chrysalis; 4th, the perfect insect
While the locust requires the long period of
seventeen years to develop, the butterfly gets
through all its stages in six or eight weeks
The lecturer here drew from his pocket q
paste board case containing several specimens
OF defunet lOcusts which he exhibited to the
audience. The head, it would be observed,
was elephant-shsped, the eyes prominent, and
containing more than five thousand lenses
each: Ii had four vings-two large and two
small; SIX legs, and a bristle-shaped besk to
take up Its food. The insect under consider.
alton had no resemblance to the Egyptian
locust or to the locust of the Scriptures-did
not even belong to the same family of insects.
The Egyptian locust was, in fact, a monstrous
grasshOpper.
DR.. NJ. proceeded to notice the peculiar
noise Of the locust, which he was free to admit
he did not admire. 1t had, however, been
the subject OF eulogy in one Of Anscreous
Oies
The male insect alone possessed this must
cal quality, fact which had been noticed by
another poet (whO the lecturer presumed was
suTly bachelor or hen-pecked) in the coup
let
Happy are the IOcusts' lives
For they all have voiceless wiyesn
Properly We could not speak of the voice of
an insect. No insects have vocal organs
IOcuSts, erickets, grasshOppers, &c produce
their noise by an apparatus behind the wings
In the States Of Maryland, Delaware, AID
Pennsylvania it was established by old news.
papers that the lOcusts have made their ap-
Pearance regularly every seventeen years,
from 1905 to their last appearance some eight
or nine years ago. During the spring of the
year II which they are to appear, on scraping
the surface OF the earth numerous holes will
appear, at the bottom of which the chrysali.
will be found its form that of the perfect in
sect, except its wings, which are rudimentary
1t Is covered with moisture, like Precipitation,
II this time.
DR.. NJ. proceeded to trace the progress of
the insect step by step, through lis entire dc.
yeloPment- The eggs were deposited by the
female locust in the punctures made upon
green living limbs Of every description Of tree
except the pine, which contains matter de-
structiye to the young locust. The female
deposits eggs to the extent of four or FIVE hun.
dred, and from ten to twenty in each puncture.
These eggs are about the size of a mustard
seed, white, and Of q pearly lustre. In about
nifty days the eggs are Matched and then
comesout a little worm like creature which falls
instinctlvely TO the ground. Nature is econom-
zeal, developing nothing useless, and thus the
little grub like those fish living in caverns, is
blind or nearly so, for of what use would eyes
be to an insect destined to burrow in the dark
earth for seventeen years? 1t descends &C.
eording 20 the nature of the soil various epths
generally from two TO three inches, but has
been found two feet in tho ground 1t gathers
about itself an earth cell or cocoon for cold
weather uses, from which il emerges at warmer
periods to get sustenance, which il obtains
from the roots Of plants, &c.
In April or May of the locust-appearing
year, the chrysalis makes its way to the sur
face Of the earth, soft on Its emergepce. but
hardening rapidly by exposure; then isbursts
open on the back, and out comes the perfect
locust.
The popular belief that locusts iniure trees
by cutting the limbs in depositing their egg,,
wa: eombsted by the lecturer, VINO expressed
the opinion that a positive advantage was
thereby rendered the trees. May not Provi-
dence use these despised insects as natural
pruners Stories Of deaths by the sting of
lOcusts were also denied any foundation in
truth. Hogs fatten on the larv8 Man eats
them, tOo-indeed, it is said that people in
this country have made an excellent supper
Oh fried lOcusts.
Before Concluding his lecture, Dr. Morris
touched upon an unfinished topic of a previous
lecture-that OF gall nuts found upon the OAK
leaf, produced by an insect which probes the
limb or tWIg, and from the puncture thus
made the singular process under notice was
evolved. Ii we probe the leaf or shrub after
the same sort, no result follows Cut open
the gall nut, and we discover a neat, lively
little uorm. The gall insect, in piercing the
plant, depOsites an egg, which at the proper
time develops In turn 10 al insect
In buying chestnuts and chincapins We
sometimes get more than We bargain for. In
opening them We see fat greasy maggot
snuSly ensconced In the centre, and sometimes
We get even closer acquaintance How did
II get there Like the king, puzzled by the
dumIlIngs so round and so smooth, who en-.
quired "HoE got the apple in 2" we wish to
know how got the maggot in ," 1t was the
work Of beetle who laid the egg in the ten
der blossom Of the chestnut, piercing the bios
som with his long snout, and as the nut hard.
ened the worm grew with its growth and rev.
elled in its juices.
On Monday night Dr. Morris will give his
fourth lecture subject, The Natural Histo-
~ Of the Honey Bee"
WASHINGTON Circus An attractive enter
talnment will be given at the Circus tonight,
IN which every member Of this star troupe
Nauw Ill