DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0412
Kirby’s wonderful museum.
366
attempted to stop their irruption into Transylvania by firing
at them; and indeed where the balls and shot swept
through the swarm, they gave way and divided ; but hav-
ing filled up their ranks in a moment, they proceeded on
their journey. *
They were of different forms, according to their different
ages; for when, in the month of September, some troops
of them were thrown to the ground by great rains, and
other inclemency of the weather, and thoroughly soaked
with wet, they crept along in quest of holes in the earth,
dung, and straw; where being sheltered from the rains,
they laid a vast number of eggs, which stuck together by a
viscid juice, and were longer and smaller than what is
commonly called an ant’s egg, very like grains of oats. The
females, having laid their eggs, die like the silk-worm;
and the Transylvanians found by experience, that that
swarm which entered into the fields by the Red Tower, did
not seem to intend remaining there, but were thrown to the
ground by the force of the wind, and there laid their eggs :
a vast number of which being turned up, and crushed by
the plough, in the beginning of the ensuing spring yielded
a yellowish juice.
In the spring of 1/48, certain little blackish worms were
seen lying in the fields and among the bushes, sticking to-
gether, and collected in clusters, not unlike the hillocks of
moles or ants. As nobody knew what they were, so there
was little or no notice taken of them; and in May they
were covered by the shooting of the corn sown in the win-
ter. But the subsequent June discovered what those worms
were; for then, as the corn sowm in the spring was pretty
high, these creatures began to spread over the fields, and
become destructive to the vegetables by their numbers.
Then at length ,the country people, who had slighted the
timely warning given them, began to repent of their neg-
ligence j for, as these insects were now dispersed all over
366
attempted to stop their irruption into Transylvania by firing
at them; and indeed where the balls and shot swept
through the swarm, they gave way and divided ; but hav-
ing filled up their ranks in a moment, they proceeded on
their journey. *
They were of different forms, according to their different
ages; for when, in the month of September, some troops
of them were thrown to the ground by great rains, and
other inclemency of the weather, and thoroughly soaked
with wet, they crept along in quest of holes in the earth,
dung, and straw; where being sheltered from the rains,
they laid a vast number of eggs, which stuck together by a
viscid juice, and were longer and smaller than what is
commonly called an ant’s egg, very like grains of oats. The
females, having laid their eggs, die like the silk-worm;
and the Transylvanians found by experience, that that
swarm which entered into the fields by the Red Tower, did
not seem to intend remaining there, but were thrown to the
ground by the force of the wind, and there laid their eggs :
a vast number of which being turned up, and crushed by
the plough, in the beginning of the ensuing spring yielded
a yellowish juice.
In the spring of 1/48, certain little blackish worms were
seen lying in the fields and among the bushes, sticking to-
gether, and collected in clusters, not unlike the hillocks of
moles or ants. As nobody knew what they were, so there
was little or no notice taken of them; and in May they
were covered by the shooting of the corn sown in the win-
ter. But the subsequent June discovered what those worms
were; for then, as the corn sowm in the spring was pretty
high, these creatures began to spread over the fields, and
become destructive to the vegetables by their numbers.
Then at length ,the country people, who had slighted the
timely warning given them, began to repent of their neg-
ligence j for, as these insects were now dispersed all over