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| On the march and on the munch - locusts have prodigious hopping as well as flying abilities (not to mention voracious appetites) |
Note on the occurrence of the locust in Yorkshire
Thinking that the following account of the appearance of the Asiatic locust in Yorkshire last year, may not be uninteresting to your readers, I have taken the liberty of troubling you with a letter on the subject.
Two of these insects were given to me on the 9th of September, 1842, by a labourer at Holmpton (a village situated quite on the sea), who had found them in an oatfield, where he, his wife and some others had been harvesting.
Not having seen any of the species before, they were, at first, afraid of touching them, but happening to know that I was a collector, they were so kind as to catch them for me which they succeeded in doing without injuring any part of their bodies.
I placed them in a box with a supply of green food, of which they partook very sparingly.
On the 18th of September, finding one of them nearly dead, and that the other had eaten part of its wings, I killed and preserved it.
The other specimen lived until the 26th of September.
During their confinement, I frequently amused myself by letting them out of the box and seeing the distance they could spring, which, when I first had them, was certainly not less that ten or twelve feet.
A window, a little more that a yard from the ground, was the point to which their aim was always directed, and they generally, if placed at a distance, say five or six feet, sufficient to enable them to attain power enough, succeeded in getting into it.
Three more specimens were taken in my neighbourhood, one at Hollym, a village about two miles from the sea, and two more by a gentleman residing at Roos which is little more than a mile from the coast.
According to the following report from the Hull Packet of September the 9th, 1842, this insect has also been taken near Scarborough.
Scarborough, Sept. 8. Extraordinary visitant
"Rarely has the locust, that terrible scourge of so many warmer climates, been seen in our favoured land, but exceptions do occur, and two specimens of the African species, upwards of three inches in length, were taken last week in this vicinity.
"One is yet alive in the possession of a gentleman in Scarborough, and the other has been preserved by Mr. Williamson for the museum.
"It is truly to be hoped that these are only accidental stragglers, and not the avant couriers of a flight such as alarmed the southern parts of England, and especially London, in August, 1748."
I have also copied a report from the Yorkshire Gazette of January, 21, 1843, from which it appears that this insect was also found further inland about the same time last year.
Locusts in England
"About three weeks ago, a labouring man took a specimen of the Gryllus migratorius, or Asiatic locust, in a field at Stonegravels, near Chesterfield.
"The man, being struck by its unusual appearance and activity, after a severe chase, succeeded in capturing it in safety.
"It is now in the cabinet of a gentleman in Chesterfield.
"We understand that several others have been taken in this and the neighbouring counties in the present year - one in Sheffield at the beginning of September, another in Mickleover, near Derby, nearly at the same time, a third about the middle of the same month, near Burton-on-Trent.
"The last was found to be a female, containing about forty or fifty eggs, apparently ready to be deposited.
"The gentleman who captured the last-mentioned specimen says that he disturbed it in getting over a hedge near which it was reposing, and that, when first discovered, the insect sprang a distance of fourteen yards."
William Sherwood
Rysome Garth
near Patrington
Holderness
Yorkshire
January, 1844
* Picture: Holleday/ Wikimedia Commons
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