The times., 1901-06-23
LONG TRIPS OF INSECTS
Butterflies That Have JOurneyed
Across the Seas.
Nigrntions of Locusts - Travellers
Across Both Oceans and Mountains
-InvusiOns of Pests Looked Upon
as ForerunnerS of Casamities.

Not long ago story was current which
sounds like the realization of a collector 5
dream. a ship was crossing the Atlantic
from the United States and was followed
by a number of butterflies of large spe-
cies called the 'black-veined brown" The
butterflies kept up with the ship. probably
alighting on it at night, and when the
steamer drew near the Scilly Islands were
still following it. Shortly afterward thir-
teen of these American butterflies were
said to have been caught in Cornwall, 1t
was alleged, by friends Of an entomologist
on board, who coutrived to let them know
by the earliest possible means that such
| distinguished strangers might be eN-
pected.
Whether the story is based on fact the
writer knows not. But there is good rea-
son to think that butterflies do occasion
ally cross the sea, whether by choice or
compulsion, and that they are not the
only insects that do so. Others also tray
q great distances by land, or migrate to
pastures new ships. in trains, and
among the feathers of birds. The unusual
number of the Camberwell Beauty butter
fly seen two years ago on the south coast
were believed to have been blown across,
or to have flown across with fair wind.
the Calais-Dover boats saw not long ago
swarms of common white butterflies
crossing the Channel. This is not in the
least surprising. The large vanessas.
such as the red admiral or CambarweH
beauty, fly swiftly and strongly. one
came out to a Scotch boat going up Chan
mel and accompanied it all the way to the
Clyde. When Darwin was off the mouth
of the Plata, and also off the Patagonian
shore, the ship was often surrounded by
insects. "One evening" he writes, when
were ten miles from the Bay of st.
Bias. vast numbers of butterflies. in bands
or fiocks of countless myriads, extended
as far as the eye could range. More spe-
cies than one were present. but the main
number wes; very similar to the common
English Colias edusa. Even by the aid
OF telescope it was not possible to see a
space free from butterflies. Some seamen
cried out, 1t was showing butterflies. "
There seems to be an occasional migra-
ton of insects into this country across
the North Sea. Very few people who have
lived on the coast of Norfolk or Suffolk
doubt it. From time to time insects are
found washed up by the waves or float
ing near the shore, in numbers like dust
for multitude 1t is possible that they
were blown offshore first, and then washed
up again, by a change of wind. But 1t
does not seem probable that they would
be in such compact masses if dispersed
and struggling against an adverse gale
at some distance from land. On the other
hand, it is well known that birds some
times fall into the sea from exhaustion
when crossing toward land, and the case
of these Iadybirds seems much the same.
pcfc
of black fiocks of the tiny turnip beetles,
which lie on the waves like 500. Fisher
men who spend much of their time off
the mouth of the Wash and TIE North
Norfolk coast have told the writer that
butterflies constantly visit their boats,
flying in from the sea; and from time to
time blue butterflies are seen lying at
short intervals, from yard to yard, along
miles of the sea fringe of sand on the
Lincoln coast.
The painted lady butterfly appears to
assemble fer migration as swallows do.
Great columns of them many yards wide
have been seen flying in a given direction.
A locust alighted on the deck of the
Beagle at a distance of $40 miles from
land. If an insect only four inches long
can make such flight. no limits can be
set to the possible misrations of locusts.
They cross seas and even mountains.
Some years ago they appeared near Oar
jeeling. Whence they came is not precise
ly known. But it is believed that they
crossed the Himalayas from Tibet. The
invasions of Iocusts are best remembered
when for some reason unknown they de-
eide 10 leave the regions over which their
fight is generally taken, and to make
vast aerial trek into others. Such inva-
sions naturally attract great attention.
The records remain, emphasized by the
actual losses inflicted, and not infrequent-
Iy by more serious misfortunes. In the
Middle Ages a locust invasion of the
North or West was regarded as one of
the regular precursors of great pestil-
lences. They are noted as among the fore
runners of these great calamities.
In 152S there appeared in the Mark of
Brandenburg during the prevalence Of
a southeast wind and a great drought,
swarms of locusts, "as if this prognostic,
too, of great epidemics was not to be
wanting" says Hecker. This ''prognostic"
had been observed before the Black Death
In the fourteenth century, the beginning
Of the "morbific conditions in the Far
East having been innumerable locust
swarms, which destroyed the crops in
Human, and caused the famine which
pestilence followed. Locusts appeared in
F'ranconia in incredible swarms in 1887,
and the celebrated Sinking mists' which
spread over Italy in 134S were made worse
by the odor of putrefying locusts, which
had spread from the East To the West"
The locusts were regarded as having been
summoned by celestial wrath to complete
the destruction ot mankind which earth
quake, famine, and pestilence had begun.
In l542 swarms of locusts migrated from
the interior Of Asia, and Travelled across
Europe as far north as the Elbe and as
far south as Spain. The Turks We're then
invading Hungary, and by natural
coincidence brought the plague with
them.
Induced migration of insects offers some
curious points in political natural history
At the beginning Of the last century the
possibility of introducing the cochineal
insect was much discussed In India. Red
dye was expensive and scarce; but red
was a color highly priced and for which
there was great demand. Clearly II
the cochineal could be introduced there
would be a sale to vast local popula-
ton The cultivation of the cactus on
which il fed, and of the insects them
selves which are planted out in little
communities on each young cactus plant
seemed exactly suited for the laborious
Hindoos. To add to the wealth of the
many nations and languages of the penln-
sula by the induced migration of one
nardy plant and a little red blight seemed
almost a natural miracle, yet possible
one Yet for some reason, though the
economic arguments were all sound, the
cochineal insect refused TO migrate with
a cheerful mind. II fiourished when taken