Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/791

 L O C L D 767 States Entomological Commission to investigate the subject, and report upon the best (if any) means of counteracting the evil effects of the pest. The result, so far as published, consists of two enormous volumes, teeming with information, and taking up the whole subject of locusts both in America and the Old &quot;World. C. sprctus has its home or permanent area in the arid plains of the central region east of the Rocky Mountains, extending slightly into the southern portion of British North America ; outside this FIG. 4. Eocky Mountain Locust (Caloptenus sjiretus). a, a, , female in different positions, ovipositing ; b, egg-pod extracted from ground, with the end broken open ; c, a few eggs lying loose on the ground ; d, e show the earth partially removed, to illustrate an egg-mass already in place, and one being placed ; / shows where such a mass has been covered up. (After Pdley.) is a wide fringe to which the term sub-permanent is applied, and this is again bounded by the limits of only occasional distribution, the whole occupying a large portion of the North American continent ; but it is not known to have crossed the Eocky Mountains westward, or to have extended into the eastern States. As to remedial or preventive measures tending to check the ravages of locusts, little unfortunately can be said, but anything that will apply to one species may be used with practically all. One point is certain ; direct remedies must always be of small avail. Something can be done (as is now done in Cyprus) by offering a price for all the egg-tubes collected, which is certainly the most direct manner of attacking them. Some little can be done by destroying the young larvre while yet in an unwinged condition, and by digging trenches in the line of march into which they can fall and be drowned or otherwise put an end to. Infinitesimally little can be done with the winged hordes having the migratory instinct upon them ; starvation, the outcome of their own work, probably here does much. It has been shown that with all migra tory locusts the breeding places, or true homes, are comparatively barren districts (mostly elevated plateaus) ; hence the progress of civilization and colonization, with its concomitant necessity for con verting those heretofore barren plains into areas of fertility, may (and probably will) gradually lessen the evil. Locusts, like all other animals, have their natural enemies. Many birds greedily devour them, and it has many times been remarked that migratory swarms of the insects were closely followed by myriads of birds. Predatory insects of other orders also attack them, especially when they are in the unwinged condition. More over, like all other insects, they have still more deadly insect foes as parasites. Some attack the fully developed winged insect. But th;- greater part adopt the more insidious method of attacking the eggs. To such belong certain beetles, chiefly of the family Can- tharidte, and especially certain two-winged flies of the family Bombyliidss. These latter, both in the Old and New &quot;World, must prevent vast quantities of eggs from producing larva;. Popular ignorance on this subject is yet great, and within a few months before this article was written it was exemplified in a remarkable manner by a suggestion from the Government officials of Cyprus that a certain parasite known to be destructive to the eggs in Asia Minor might be introduced into the island, a suggestion immedi ately followed by the discovery that what is probably the same parasite already existed there. A flight of locusts would appear not to be always an unmixed evil, even to man. The larger Old World species form articles of food with certain semi-civilized and savage races, by whom they are considered as delicacies, or as part of ordinary diet, according to the race and the method of preparation. Literature. Kirby and Spencc, Introduction to Entomology, 7th ed., London l.^. .ti: Koppen, &quot;Die geographische Verbrcittmff der Wanderheuschr eckp,&quot; in ton, 1S7S-80. (R. M L.) LOCUST-TREE, Ceratonia Siliqiict, L., the carob-tree, of the tribe Cassiex of the order Legwnwotx, is the sole species, widely diffused spontaneously and by cultivation from Spain to the eastern Mediterranean regions, and from Egypt to Bornou in Central Africa (Hogg, Hooker s Journ. ofBot., i. 113), and imported to Hindustan (Graham, p. 254). It differs from all leguminous plants by the dilated disk to the calyx. It has no petals, and the flowers are polygamous or dioecious. The legume is compressed, often curved, indehiscent, and coriaceous, but with sweet pulpy divisions between the seeds, which, as in other genera of the Cassiese, are albuminous. The pods are eaten by men and animals, and in Sicily a spirit and a syrup are made from them. These husks being often used for swine are called swine s bread, and are probably referred to in the parable of the Prodigal Son. It is also called St John s bread, from a misunderstanding of Matt. iii. 4. The carob-tree was regarded by Sprengel as the tree with which Moses sweetened the bitter waters of Marah (Exod. xv. 25), as the Miarrtib, according to Avicenna (p. 205), has the property of sweetening salt and bitter waters. Gerard (Hcrball, p. 1241) cultivated it in 1597, it having been introduced in 1570 (Loudon s Arb., ii. 660). For various names, extent of distribution, historical references, &c., see Pickering s Chron. Hist, of PL, p. 141. LODEVE, capital of an arrondissement of the depart ment of He rault, France, lies at an elevation of 674 feet, under a range of hills rising to 2790 feet, in a small valley where the Soulondre joins the Lergue, a tributary of the He rault, 34 miles east-north-east from Montpellier. A bridge over the Lergue connects the town with the fau bourg of Carmes on the left bank of the river, and two bridges over the Soulondre&quot; lead to the extensive ruins of the Chateau de Montbrun. There is railway communica tion with Agde by a line following the He rault valley. The old cathedral of St Fulcran, founded by him in 950, was rebuilt in the 1 4th century and restored in the 1 6th ; the cloister, dating from the 15th century, is ornate in style. In the picturesque environs of the town stands the well-preserved monastery of St Michel de Grammont, dating from the 12th century; it is now used as farm buildings. In the neighbourhood are three fine dolmens. Lodeve is one of the most important industrial centres of the south of France, upwards of 7000 workmen being employed in the manufacture of woollens for army clothing ; the aggregate horse-power of the factories is 1500. Wool is imported in large quantities from the neighbouring provinces, and from Morocco ; the exports are cloth to Italy and the Levant, wine, brandy, chemicals, and wood. The population in 1876 was 10,528. Luteva existed prior to the invasion of the Romans, who for some time called it Forum Neronis. The inhabitants were converted to Christianity by St Flour, first bishop of the city, about 323. After passing successively into the hands of the Visigoths, the Franks, the Ostrogoths, the Arabs, and the Carlovingians, it became in the 9th centuiy a separate countship, and afterwards the domain of the bishops of Lodeve. During the religious wars it suffered much, especially in 1573, when it was sacked. It ceased to be an episcopal see in 1789. LODGE, THOMAS (c. 1556-1625), dramatist, novelist, pamphleteer, poet, but not player, was born about the year 1556 at West Hani, and was possibly the son of a namesake, shortly afterwards lord mayor of London. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and then entered as a student at Lincoln s Inn, where, as in the other Inns of Court, a love of letters, and a crop of debts and diffi culties, alike grew as matters of course. Thus already as a young man he preferred the looser ways of life and the lighter aspects of literature. When the penitent Stephen Gosson had (in 1579) published his Schoole of Abuse, Lodge took up the glove in his Defence of Poetry, Music, and Stage-