Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/853

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infect deflin'd to the fame purpofe ; it is made of a fort of horny matter, as all theirs are, and has many obfervable pe- culiarities, which are fecn even by the naked eye. This inilrument in the larger fpecies of Cicada is nearly half an inch long. In both the male and female of this infect the body is terminated by a conic part, but this in the females is longer than in the malts, and is larger at the bafc ; this makes the body of the female appear longer than that of the male. In the female this conic part is all of one piece, not compofed of two halves, as in the male ; and this is flit all the Way down to givepafliige to the inir.ru.ment on occafion. The in- ilrument lodg'd in this is called by authors the piercer: It has its own peculiar (heath over it, and this conic part of the body only ferves to make a general covering for both. If the belly of the Cicada be gently prefied between the fingers, this inilrument fhews itfclf in its whole length ; it is alfo feen naked, for its peculiar cafe or iheath docs not follow it out of the body, but is fixed in part to the bafe of the conic end of the body. This inflrument is oblong and cylindric, nearly of a bigncis all the way, except that it is a little larger at the extremity than elfewhere, and terminates in a (harp point which is notched with nine teeth on each fide. A very exact account of this instrument is given at large in Reaumur, to whom we refer the reader. Reaumw's Hift. Inf. v. 9. p. 218.

Moft other infects which lodge their eggs in wood, do it in the young (hoots and tender branches of flirubs and trees while yet living, where the eggs receive juices and nou- riihment from the fap. See the article Rose-^j. The Cicada, on the contrary, knowing that her eggs on- ly want a proper lodgment, not a nourishing juice, always lays them in dry or dead (ticks. The creature never regards what kind of wood (he meets with, but feizes the dead twigs of any tree, and bores a row of holes in it, putting an egg into each. The twigs which have thefe eggs in them are eafily known by their appearing uneven and lull of ele- vations over the places where the eggs are. The common courfe of the operation throws off the bark, but the (mail fragments of the wood cut to pieces in making the hole ufu- ally remain upon the place, and thefe make io many little hillocks which all point regularly one way, as the animal keeps one direction in making them all. In order to difcover the mcchanifin of thefe holes, it is neceflary to fplit oft a thin piece of the branch in which they are made, and it is com- mon then to fee fcveral of them diftinctly. The creature ufu- ally chufes fuch trees as have a pith in their young branches, iiich as the mulberry and the like ; and when (he has pierced to the pith, (he never wounds the wood on the other (ide, but carries on the hole in the center to the whole length of her piercer. The length of this hole makes it a proper ludging for a number of eggs, often nine or ten ; fometim.es but four or five are placed in each ; thefe are oblong and pointed at both ends, and of a white colour. The number of eggs laid by every female is very great, for on opening the body of one of them there are ufually found more than an hundred and fifty in each ovary, in thofc which are lefs filled than the common ones ; and fome authors mention the finding in the whole fix or (even hundred eggs in thofe which are full and have not begun to lay. The holes where the eggs arc depofit- cd, are all carefully flopped up by the creature, to defend them from being eaten by other fmaller infects. Some have fuppofed that the female to this purpofe covers them with a vifcous fluid fecreted from her body ; but there is no appear- ance of any thing of this kind to be found on examination ; en the contrary, the method file ufes is this, (he carefully places the dult or fmall fragments of the wood which (he cuts out on one fide of the hole, and when (he has done, (he draws them into it again, making it receive as much of them as its cavity will admit j thus the orifice is well flopp'd, and the reft of the duft is piled up in a hillock over it. On opening the (licks in which thefe eggs are placed at different feafons, there are found two forts of infects of different kinJs, the one an oblong worm without legs and arm'd with four teeth, the other a (horter animal of the fhape of a flea, and hav- ing fix legs. Thefe laft are the produce of the eggs of the Cicada, the others are the offspring of an ichneumon fly, and are only depofitcd there to feed on the proper inhabitants. The fix-legg'd infects have a fmall head bending down under the. body, and lengthening out into an appearance of a fort of trunk, and the head is as it were cleft in two. Thefe creatures depofit their firfl exuvia in the nefl, and after this they comciout at the fame hole at which the egg was let in, and they arc no fooncr out than they fall to the ground, and immediately make their way into it and bury themfelves; they live fome time under ground in the form of a hcxapode worm, with a trunk, but without the fiilure feen in the head of the young ones while in the neit. After living fome time under ground they become transformed into a fort of nymphs, which have alio a motive power, and have yet a part of their growth to attain to : Thefe nymphs were well known to the anticnts; Ajrij&otlehas dsfcribM them under the name of Tet- tigometra;, or mothers of the Cicada. Thefe nymphs are of a dirty brown colour, and differ principally from the hexa-

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pode worms, in that the cafes of the wings of the future.il/ are eafily feen in this (tate, but not at all in that of the worm. The head of the nymph is of the fame fhape with the head of the fuoceedtng fly, and lias its trunk placed in the very fame manner, and covered with the fame fort of (heath or cafe. The double corcelet is divided in the fame manner in the nymph as in the perfect Cicada, and the rings of the body may be as eafily counted ; but the parts which characterize the different fexes, are not to be feen in thefe. The founding or- gans in the belly of the male, and the piercer at the hinder part of the female, never (hew themfelves till the creature is in its perfect (tate. Reaumur, Hift. Inf. vol. 9. p. 235. The mod: remarkable thing in the nymphs of the Cicada is their anterior pair of legs ; thefe are made fome what in the fhape of a crab's claws, having a kind of foot at the ends; and thefe are armed with a fort of hooks, which authors call claws, from their refemblance to the claws of a bird's foot. Thefe legs feem admirably contrived for the creature to make its way into the ground, and travel under it at its pleafurc. The other four legs of the nymph of the Cicada have nothing remarkable in them, but are terminated by a fort of claws, inftead of the large feet which terminate the others. The ftructure of the anterior feet of this animal is extremely neceflary to it; for it is frequently found at two or three feet depth in the earth, in winter, having often made its way through a ft iff" clay to that depth. As the young are always hatched in the branches oftrees, the old ones depositing their eggs in no other place, fo thefe nymphs are ufually found in the earth, about the roots of trees, and find their nouriihment in fucking their roots. The creature remains in this nymph (tate two years, and when the time of its final transformation into the fly (tate ap- proaches, it leaves the earth, and crawls up the body of the tree, and there fattening itftlf to fome of the branches, it changes into the fly, in the manner that all the other creatures pafs into that (tate, that is, by breaking through its feveral coverings, by means of the repeated inflations of its body. When the fly firfl comes out of this cafe, it is green, but it becomes brown by degrees, and in a few hours lofes all its firfl agreeable colour.

Thefe infects are extremely troublefome, by their noife, in moft of the hot countries : They are now made no ufe of any where ; but we find that the antients revenged themfelves of their noife by eating them. They accounted them an excel- lent difh in all their dates; but the nymph, or tettygometra, was what they were moft of all fond of; they alfo cat them in the fly (tate, and were fo nice as to diflinguifh their fexes and feafons. They preferred the females when they were full of eggs^ and the males before that time, while they were full of the femen. Reaumur, Hift. Inf. vol. 9. p. 236.

HASCHE, in botany, a name by which fome authors have cal- led thyme. Ger, Emac. lnd. 2.

HASELA, in zoology, the name of a frefh water fifh, of the malacoftomous or leather-mouth'd kind, called, by fome, a fpecies of the mullet, by others, of the chubb ; and in many places, the hafler. It is a fmooth, foft, and fmall fifh, of an oblong and (lender body, and feldom exceeding fix or (even inches in length. It is of a blackifh green on the back, and a filvery white on the belly. Its tail, and its back fin are of a bluifh hue, the other fins are fome what red. The fcaics are large, thin, and fimbriated at their edges. Its fide lines are dotted, and arc nearer the back than the belly. They are efteemed a good fifh, at fome feafons of the year, for the table, but at others they are faid to breed worms, and be very unwholefome. They are caught in lakes and rivers ; but thofe from running waters are efteemed the beft ; and April and May are accounted the months in which they are in higheft feafon ; they are eaten alfo in June and July, but feldom after thofe months. JPVlughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 261. Gefrer, de Pifc.

HASINELLAS, in the glafs-making trade, are a number of hooks fattened to the fides of the working furnace, by means of which the workmen are able to reft and turn their veflels as they fcald them. Neri's Art of Glafs, p. 242.

HASSA Alrhai, in the materia medica of the Arabian phyfi- cians, a name given to a plant, the virtues of which they commend on many occafions.

The meaning of the words Hajja Alrhai is virga paftoris, fhepherd's rod ; and hence many have been led to fuppofe, that the plant we call virga paftoris, or dipfacus minor, the fmaller tcafel, or (hepherd's rod, has the virtues given to the Haffa Alrhai, and was the fame plant. But though it hap- pens that the names of thefe two plants agree in fignification, there is nothing elfe in which they agree, the Haffa Alrhai being the fame plant with the polygonum of the early writers, which, with the epithet of mafculutn, flood for the common knotgrafs; and when the word faemininum was added, figm- fied the common equifctum, or horfetail, which was called polygonum, for the fame reafon that the knotgrafs was ; that is, becaufe its (talk was compofed of a great number of joints. Thefe two plants agree in the virtues of agglutmants and aftringents, neither of which virtues our virga paftoris has any title to.

HASTATED leaf, amone botanifts. See Le af.

HASTATIj