Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/576

 570 LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE LOCUST distance below disappears in a deep chasm. As the natural outlet of this was so small as to cause frequent inundations, a tunnel about 900 ft. long was cut through the solid limestone in 1802-'6, to carry off the surplus water into the Doubs. The town was burned in 1833. It now consists of scattered houses, generally painted and neat-looking, and contains a hos- pital for old men and an orphan asylum. Clocks, watches, jewelry, and lace are largely manufactured here, and constitute almost the sole industry. (See CHAUX DE FONDS.) LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. See STEAM CAR- BIAGE. LOCRI, or Locri Epizephyrii (" Western Lo- cri "), an ancient city of southern Italy, situ- ated on the S. E. coast of the Bruttian penin- sula. It was founded by a colony from Locris, Greece, in the Vth century B. 0., and became celebrated by the laws of Zaleucus. In later times Locri was generally an ally of Syracuse, whose tyrant, the elder Dionysius, married a Locrian woman. When Pyrrhus of Epirus in- vaded Italy in 280, Locri was garrisoned by a Roman force. On his approach the Locri- ans drove out the Romans, and declared for the Epirote, but subsequently rose against the mercenaries whom he had stationed in their citadel during his absence in Sicily. Pyrrhus on his return levied heavy contributions upon them, and carried off a great part of the trea- sure deposited in the temple of Proserpine. After the departure of Pyrrhus from Italy Locri again submitted to Rome, but in 216, on receiving intelligence of Hannibal's great vic- tory at Cannae, went over to the Carthaginians. In 205 the treachery of the aristocracy enabled the Romans to recover possession of the city. From this period we hear little of Locri. It existed however as late as the 6th century A. D., and was probably destroyed by the Sar- acens. Modern travellers have discovered its ruins near the Neapolitan town of Gerace, where are the fragments of a Doric temple, supposed to have been that of Proserpine. LOCRIS, a territory of ancient Greece, occu- pied by the Locrians, who were said to have been descended from the Leleges. Their terri- tory, in the opinion of Niebuhr, originally ex- tended across the continent from the Corinthi- an gulf to the Euboean strait ; but the encroach- ments of the Phocians and Dorians gradually deprived them of the central portions, and confined them to the maritime districts. The Opuntii and Epicnemidii, whose territories lay toward the east, became comparatively civil- ized; but the western tribe remained in a semi-barbarous state. The territories of the Locri Epicnemidii (so called from their prox- imity to Mount Cnemis) and Locri Opuntii (named from their chief city Opus) stretched along the Euboean strait and Malian gulf from the mouth of the river Cephissus to the pass of Thermopylae, save where a strip of Phocis severed them. The Locrians are represented by Homer as following Ajax the son of Oi- leus to the Trojan war with 40 ships. In the Persian war the Opuntii sent a contingent un- der Leonidas to Thermopylae, and a squad- ron of seven ships to aid the confederate fleet. During the Peloponnesian war the eastern Locrians sided with Sparta. The territory of the Ozolian or western Locrians was bound- ed N. E. by Doris, E. by Phocis, S. by the Co- rinthian gulf, and W. and N. W. by ^Etolia, It is a mountainous and barren district. The sur- name of its inhabitants (Ozolas, stinkards) was probably derived from the fetid sulphur springs which abound. The chief towns were Amphis- sa, Naupactus (now Lepanto), and Eupalium. The Ozolian Locrians first appear in history du- ring the Peloponnesian war, and are classed by Thucydides with the half-savage JEtolians and Acarnanians, whom they resembled in many respects. In 426 B. 0. they promised to aid the Athenian general Demosthenes against the ^Etolians, but after his defeat they submitted to Eurylochus, the Spartan commander. In the latter days of Grecian independence they were members of the ^Etolian confederacy. After the Roman conquest of Greece, all Locris was absorbed in the province of Achaia. LOCUST, a saltatory orthopterous insect, of the family locustidce, and the genera acridium, locusta, caloptenus, and others. The locusts are characterized by roofed wing covers, short antennae not tapering at the end, three-joint- ed feet, and absence of projecting ovipositor. The extremity of the body in the female is provided with four short wedge-shaped pieces, arranged in pairs, and moving up and down like double nippers ; these are forced into the ground, enlarging the hole as they are opened and withdrawn until it is deep and large enough to receive the eggs. The males make a loud noise by rubbing their hind legs across the pro- jecting veins of the wing covers, like playing upon a violin, the sound being intensified by a sonorous cavity in the first abdominal seg- ment. The hind legs are very powerful, en- abling them to leap much better than the grass- hoppers ; their strong and narrow wings give them the power of rapid and long continued flight, accompanied by a loud whizzing noise, compared in their immense swarms to the rush- ing of a whirlwind, the rattling of chariots, and the crackling of burning stubble. The Carolina locust, about 1 in. long with an ex- panse of wings of about 3 in., is pale yellow- ish brown, with dusky spots, and black wings broadly margined with yellow ; this species, well known for its sharp noise during the hot- test days of summer, is found abundantly by the roadside, flying before the traveller to a considerable distance; it prefers warm and dry places, but is sometimes seen near salt marshes in company with the red-legged spe- cies; the eggs, deposited in the ground in au- tumn, are hatched in the following spring. In the genus tetrix, or grouse-locusts, Dr. Har- ris describes seven species ; they are found in the hottest places, and leap to an astonishing