Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions. A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.

On the morning of the 17th of September, 1831, a small dipterous insect, belonging to Meigen’s genus _Chlorops_, and nearly allied to, if not identical with, his _C. læta_, appe...

“When it’s a bad time for silling the papers, such as a wet, could day, then most of the fly-paper boys goes out with brushes, cleaning boots. Most of the boys is now out hoppin...

Lac, in its different forms, is made use of in the manufacture of varnishes, japanned ware, sealing-wax, beads, rings, arm-bracelets, necklaces, water-proof hats, etc., etc. Mix...

When the provincial governors of Spain are informed in the spring that Locusts have been seen, they collect the soldiers and peasants, divide them into companies and surround th...

It is recorded by Oviedo and Herrera, that the whole island of Hispaniola was almost abandoned in consequence of the Sugar-Ant, _Formica omnivora_ of Linnæus, which, in 1518 and...

“A German, who had a country-seat about six miles from the fort, having given leave to some Hottentots to turn their cattle for awhile upon his land there, they removed to the p...

Moufet, in Theatrum Insectorum, has the following: “Also that knotty whip of God, and mock of all physicians, the Gowt, which learned men say can be cured by no remedy, findes h...

By the Greeks, Bees were accounted an omen of future eloquence;[609] the soothsayers of the Romans, however, deemed them always of evil augury.[610] They afforded also to the Ro...

An anecdote is related by M. Reaumur respecting the thimble-shaped nest, formed of leaves, of the Carpenter-bee (_Apis centuncularis_?), which is a striking instance of the ridi...

Not content with the dreadful presence of this plague, the inhabitants of most countries took that opportunity of adding to their present misery by prognosticating future evils....

Another strange mode of alluring Bees into a new hive is practiced near Gloucester, England, but only when all the usual ways of preparing hives fail; it is this: When a swarm i...

Mr. Wildman frequently exhibited himself with his head and face almost covered with Bees, and with such a swarm of them hanging down from his chin as to resemble a venerable bea...

Concerning Scorpions, Diophanes, contemporary with Cæsar and Cicero, has collected the following several opinions of the more ancient writers: If you take a Scorpion, he says, a...

Quatremer Disjonval, a Frenchman by birth, was an adjutant-general in Holland, and took an active part on the side of the Dutch patriots when they revolted against the Stadthold...

According to M. Craveri, by whom some of the Mexican bread, and of the insects yielding it, were brought to Europe, these insects and their eggs are very common in the fresh wat...

“It will take,” says Mrs. Taylor, a writer in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, “a force unknown at the present time to physiological science to eradicate the feeling of terror and...

Franklin was much inclined to believe Ants could communicate their thoughts or desires to one another, and confirmed his opinion by several experiments. Observing that when an A...

In the north of Europe it is thought lucky when a young girl in the country sees the Lady-bird in the spring; she then lets it creep about her hand, and says: “She measures me f...

Hose were, in England, up to the time of Henry VIII., made out of ordinary cloth: the King’s own were formed of yard-wide taffata. It was only by chance that he might obtain a p...

The Times of October 9th, 1826, records another shower of gossamer as follows: “On Sunday, Oct. 1st, 1826, a phenomenon of rare occurrence in the neighborhood of Liverpool was o...

5. A Courageous Warrior.--As such they forced all the soldiers to wear rings, upon each of which a beetle was engraved, _i.e._ an animal perpetually in armor, who went his round...

To account for the singular sound produced by the _Platyphyllon concavum_, which much resembles the expression _Katy did_, so much so that the insect is now called the Katy-did,...

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...

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.

As illustrative of the strength of the Flea, the following facts may also be given: We read in a note to Purchas’s Pilgrims that “one Marke Scaliot, in London, made a lock and k...

Pallas once saw such vast flights of the orange-tipped Butterfly, _Pontia cardamines_, in the vicinity of Winofka, that he at first mistook them for flakes of snow.[772] At Barb...

The _Dynastes Goliathus_, Moufet says, “like to beetles (_Ateuchus sacer_), hath no female, but it shapes its own form itself. It produceth its young one from the ground by itse...

There is a very curious operation performed at the present day in the Levant with one of these Gall-flies, which is termed _caprification_. The object of it is to hasten the mat...

This singular form, for their ornamental combs, seems to have been adopted originally from the predilection of the Athenians for whatever bore any affinity to themselves, who bo...

[542] The Swiss farmers, in order to rid their trees of caterpillars, allure the Ants to climb the trees, where, being confined by a circle of pitch round the holes, hunger soon...

[121] _Phil. Trans. Abridg._, ix. 11. Concerning the worship of animals in general by the Egyptians, the following remarks in a note may not be inappropriate, as they embrace th...

Serpents and Ants, 157; enmity between Spiders and, 341; Honey for bite of, 208; a Mantis the parent of the, 157; of Tiberias Cæsar eaten by Ants, 151; to kill Nits, 320; worshi...

Baird says, but on what authority he does not state, that Cicadas are frequently to be seen represented on the Egyptian monuments, and are said to be emblems of the ministers of...

A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF THE LEGENDS, SUPERSTITIONS, BELIEFS, AND OMINOUS SIGNS CONNECTED WITH INSECTS; TOGETHER WITH THEIR USES IN MEDICINE, ART, AND AS FOOD; AND A SUMMARY OF...

“I now beg to interpret the signs of the night. If at midnight an individual hears the noises of animals in the house where he resides, I will show him whether they indicate goo...

Food, Ants as, 159-161; Bees, 204; _Buprestis_, 51; Butterflies, 231; Caterpillars, 372; Cicadas, 254; Cossi, 27; _Copris molossus_, 44; Field-crickets, 96; Flies, 295; Galls, 1...