Rocky Mountains westward, or to have extended into the eastern
states.
Fig. 3.—Caloptenus italicus.
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. Something can be done (as is now done in Cyprus) by offering a price for all the egg-tubes collected, which is the most direct manner of attacking them. Some little can be done by destroying the larvae while 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. Little can be done with the winged hordes; starvation, the outcome of their own work, probably here does much. In South Africa some success has attended the spraying of the swarms with arsenic. It has been shown that with all migratory locusts the breeding-places, or true homes, are comparatively barren districts (mostly elevated plateaus); hence the progress of colonization, and the conversion of those heretofore barren plains into areas of fertility, may (and probably will) gradually lessen the evil.
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| Fig. 4.—Rocky Mountain Locust (Caloptenus spretus). (After Riley.) | ||||||||||
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Locusts have many enemies besides man. 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. Moreover, they have still more deadly insect foes as parasites. Some attack the fully developed winged insect. But the greater part attack the eggs. To such belong certain beetles, chiefly of the family Cantharidae, and especially certain two-winged flies of the family Bombyliidae. These latter, both in the Old and New World, must prevent vast quantities of eggs from producing larvae.
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. (R. M‘L.; R. I. P.)
LOCUST-TREE, or Carob-Tree (Ceratonia siliqua), a member of the tribe Cassieae of the order Leguminosae, the sole species of its genus, and widely diffused spontaneously and by cultivation from Spain to the eastern Mediterranean regions. The name of the genus is derived from the often curved pod (Gr. κεράτιον, a little horn). The flowers have no petals and are polygamous or dioecious (male, female and hermaphrodite flowers occur). The seed-pod is compressed, often curved, indehiscent and coriaceous, but with sweet pulpy divisions between the seeds, which, as in other genera of the Cassieae, 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 kharrúb, according to Avicenna (p. 205), has the property of sweetening salt and bitter waters. Gerard (Herball, p. 1241) cultivated it in 1597, it having been introduced in 1570.
LODÈVE, a town of southern France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Hérault, 36 m. W.N.W. of Montpellier by rail. Pop. (1906), 6142. It is situated in the southern Cévennes at the foot of steep hills in a small valley where the Soulondres joins the Lergue, a tributary of the Hérault. Two bridges over the Lergue connect the town with the faubourg of Carmes on the left bank of the river, and two others over the Soulondres lead to the extensive ruins of the château de Montbrun (13th century). The old fortified cathedral of St Fulcran, founded by him in 950, dates in its present condition from the 13th, 14th and 16th centuries; the cloister, dating from the 15th and 17th centuries, is in ruins. In the picturesque environs of the town stands the well-preserved monastery of St Michel de Grammont, dating from the 12th century and now used as farm buildings. In the neighbourhood are three fine dolmens. The manufacture of woollens for army clothing is the chief industry. Wool is imported in large quantities from the neighbouring departments, and from Morocco; the exports are cloth to Italy and the Levant, wine, brandy and wood. The town has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of arts and manufactures, and a communal college.
Lodève (Luteva) existed before 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 Carolingians, it became in the 9th century a separate countship, and afterwards the domain of its bishops. During the religious wars it suffered much, especially in 1573, when it was sacked. It ceased to be an episcopal see at the Revolution.
LODGE, EDMUND (1756–1839), English writer on heraldry, was born in London on the 13th of June 1756, son of Edmund Lodge, rector of Carshalton, Surrey. He held a cornet’s commission in the army, which he resigned in 1773. In 1782 he became Bluemantle pursuivant-at-arms in the College of Arms. He subsequently became Lancaster herald, Norroy king-at-arms, Clarencieux king-at-arms, and, in 1832, knight of the order of the Guelphs of Hanover. He died in London on the 16th of January 1839. He wrote Illustrations of British History, Biography and Manners in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth and James I. . . . (3 vols., 1791), consisting of selections from the MSS. of the Howard, Talbot and Cecil families preserved at the College of Arms; Life of Sir Julius Caesar . . . (2nd ed., 1827). He contributed the literary matter to Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain (1814, &c.), an elaborate work of which a popular edition is included in Bohn’s “Illustrated Library.” His most important work on heraldry was The Genealogy of the existing British Peerage . . . (1832; enlarged edition, 1859). In The Annual Peerage and Baronetage (1827–1829), reissued after 1832 as Peerage of the British Empire, and generally known as Lodge’s Peerage, his share did not go beyond the title-page.
