an ally, and was only obliged like other Greek coast towns to furnish ships. In later Roman times it is often mentioned, but was apparently of no great importance. It is mentioned incidentally until the 6th century A.D., but was destroyed by the Saracens in 915.
Excavations in 1889–1890 led to the discovery of an Ionic temple (the Doric style being usual in Magna Graecia) at the north-west angle of the town—originally a cella with two naves, a closed pronaos on the E. and an adytum at the back (W.), later converted into a hexastyle peripheral temple with 34 painted terra-cotta columns. This was then destroyed about 400 B.C. and a new temple built on the ruins, heptastyle peripteral, with no intermediate columns in the cella and opisthodomos, and with 44 columns in all. The figures from the pediment of the twin Dioscuri, who according to the legend assisted Locri against Crotona, are in the Naples museum (see R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, Griechische Tempel in Unteritalien und Sicilien, Berlin, 1899, pp. 1 sqq.). Subsequent excavations in 1890–1891 were of the greatest importance, but the results remained unpublished up to 1908. From a short account by P. Orsi in Atti del Congresso Storico, vol. v. (Archeologia) Rome, 1904, p. 201, we learn that the exploration of the environs of the temple led to the discovery of a large number of archaic terra-cottas, and of some large trenches, covered with tiles, containing some 14,000 scyphoi arranged in rows. The plan of the city was also traced; the walls, the length of which was nearly 5 m., consisted of three parts—the fortified castles (φρούρια) with large towers, on three different hills, the city proper, and the lower town—the latter enclosed by long walls running down to the sea. In the Roman period the city was restricted to the plain near the sea. Since these excavations, a certain amount of unauthorized work has gone on, and some of the remains have been destroyed. In the course of these excavations some prehistoric objects have been discovered, which confirm the accounts of Thucydides and Polybius that the Greek settlers found the Siculi here before them. (T. As.)
LÖCSE (Ger. Leutschau), the capital of the county of Szepes, in Hungary, 230 m. N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 6845, mostly Germans and Slovaks. The county of Szepes is the highest part of Hungary, and its north-western portion is occupied by the Tátra Mountains. Löcse lies in an elevated position surrounded by mountains, and is one of the oldest towns of Hungary. The church of St James is a Gothic structure of the 13th century, with richly carved altar, several monuments, and a celebrated organ erected in 1623, and long reputed the largest in Hungary. The old town-hall, restored in 1894, contains a Protestant upper gymnasium, founded in 1544, and one of the oldest printing establishments in Hungary, founded in 1585. Bee-keeping and the raising of garden produce are the chief industries.
Founded by Saxon colonists in 1245, Löcse had by the early part of the 16th century attained a position of great relative importance. In 1599 a fire destroyed the greater part of the town, and during the 17th century it suffered repeatedly at the hands of the Transylvanian princes and leaders.
LOCUS (Lat. for “place”; in Gr. τόπος), a geometrical term, the invention of the notion of which is attributed to Plato. It occurs in such statements as these: the locus of the points which are at the same distance from a fixed point, or of a point which moves so as to be always at the same distance from a fixed point, is a circle; conversely a circle is the locus of the points at the same distance from a fixed point, or of a point moving so as to be always at the same distance from a fixed point; and so in general a curve of any given kind is the locus of the points which satisfy, or of a point moving so as always to satisfy, a given condition. The theory of loci is thus identical with that of curves (see Curve and Geometry: § Analytical). The notion of a locus applies also to solid geometry. Here the locus of the points satisfying a single (or onefold) condition is a surface; the locus of the points satisfying two conditions (or a twofold condition) is a curve in space, which is in general a twisted curve or curve of double curvature.
LOCUST.[1] In its general acceptation this term is applied only to certain insects of the order Orthoptera, family Acridiidae. The family Locustidae is now viewed zoologically in a sense that does not admit of the species best known as “locusts” being included therein. The idea of a very destructive insect is universally associated with the term; therefore many orthopterous species that cannot be considered true locusts have been so-called; in North America it has even embraced certain Hemiptera-Homoptera, belonging to the Cicadidae, and in some parts of England cockchafers are so designated. In a more narrow definition the attribute of migration is associated with the destructive propensities, and it therefore becomes necessary that a true locust should be a migratory species of the family Acridiidae. Moreover, the term has yet a slightly different signification as viewed from the Old or New World. In Europe by a locust is meant an insect of large size, the smaller allied species being ordinarily known as “grasshoppers,” hence the “Rocky Mountain locust” of North America is to Eastern ideas rather a grasshopper than a locust.
In Europe, and a greater part of the Old World, the best known migratory locust is that which is scientifically termed Pachytylus cinerascens with which an allied species P. migratorius has been often confounded. Another locust found in Europe and neighbouring districts is Caloptenus italicus, and still another, Acridium peregrinum, has once or twice occurred in Europe, though its home (even in a migratory sense) is more properly Africa and Asia. These practically include all the locusts of the Old World, though a migratory species of South Africa known as Pachytylus pardalinus (presumed to be distinct from P. migratorius) should be mentioned. The Rocky Mountain locust of North America is Caloptenus spretus, and in that continent there occurs an Acridium (A. americanum) so closely allied to A. peregrinum as to be scarcely distinct therefrom, though there it does not manifest migratory tendencies. In the West Indies and Central America A. peregrinum is also reported to occur.
The females excavate holes in the earth in which the eggs are deposited in a long cylindrical mass enveloped in a glutinous secretion. The young larvae hatch and immediately commence their destructive career. As these insects are “hemimetabolic” there is no quiescent stage; they go on increasing rapidly in size, and as they approach the perfect state the rudiments of the wings begin to appear. Even in this stage their locomotive powers are extensive and their voracity great. Once winged and perfect these powers become infinitely more disastrous, redoubled by the development of the migratory instinct. The laws regulating this instinct are not perfectly understood. Food and temperature have a great deal to do with it, and there is a tendency for the flights to take a particular direction, varied by the physical circumstances of the breeding districts. So likewise each species has its area of constant location, and its area of extraordinary migration. Perhaps the most feasible of the suggestions as to the causes of the migratory impulse is that locusts naturally breed in dry sandy districts in which food is scarce, and are impelled to wander to procure the necessaries of life; but against this it has been argued that swarms bred in a highly productive district in which they have temporarily settled will seek the barren home of their ancestors. Another ingenious suggestion is that migration is intimately connected with a dry condition of the atmosphere, urging them to move on until compelled to stop for food or procreative purposes. Swarms travel considerable distances, though probably generally fewer than 1000 m., though sometimes very much more. As a rule the progress is only gradual, and this adds vastly to the devastating effects. When an extensive swarm temporarily settles in a district, all vegetation rapidly disappears, and then hunger urges it on another stage. The large Old World species, although undoubtedly phytophagous, when compelled by hunger sometimes attack at least dry animal substances, and even cannibalism has been asserted as an outcome of the failure of all other kinds of food. The length of a single flight must depend upon
- ↑ The Lat. locusta was first applied to a lobster or other marine shell-fish and then, from its resemblance, to the insect.
