The _Prionus damicornis_ is a native of many parts of America and the West Indies, where its larva, a grub about three and a half inches in length, and of the thickness of the little finger, is in great request as an article of food, being considered by epicures as one of the greatest delicacies of the New World. We are informed by authors of the highest respectability, that some people of fortune in the West Indies keep negroes for the sole purpose of going into the woods in quest of these admired larvæ, who scoop them out of the trees in which they reside. Dr. Browne, in his History of Jamaica, informs us that they are chiefly found in the plum and silk-cotton trees (_Bombax_). They are commonly called by the name of _Macauco_, or _Macokkos_. The mode of dressing them is first to open and wash them, and then carefully broil them over a charcoal fire.[231] Sir Hans Sloane tells us the Indians of Jamaica boil them in their soups, pottages, olios, and pepper-pots, and account them of delicious flavor, much like, but preferable to, marrow; and the negroes of this island roast them slightly at the fire, and eat them with bread.[232] A similar larva is dressed at Mauritius under the name of _Moutac_, which the whites as well as the negroes eat greedily.[233] According to Linnæus, the larva of the _Prionus cervicornis_ is held in equal estimation; and that of the _Acanthocinus tribulus_ when roasted forms an article of food in Africa.[234] The _Cossus_ of Pliny belonged most probably to this tribe, or to the _Lucanidæ_. * * * * * Wanley knew a nun in the monastery of St. Clare, who at the sight of a beetle was affected in the following strange manner. It happened that some young girls, knowing her disposition, threw a beetle into her bosom, which when she perceived, she immediately fell into a swoon, deprived of all sense, and remained four hours in cold sweats. She did not regain her strength for many days after, but continued trembling and pale.[235] Galerucidæ--Turnip-fly, etc. The striped Turnip-beetle, _Haltica nemorum_, commonly called the _Turnip-fly_, _Turnip-flea_, _Earth-flea-beetle_, _Black-jack_, etc., is a well known species from the ravages the perfect insect commits upon the turnip. In Devonshire, England, in the year 1786, the loss caused by these insects alone was valued at £100,000 sterling. And in the spring of 1837, the vines in the neighborhood of Montpellier were attacked to so great an extent by another species, _Haltica oleracea_, in the perfect state, that fears were entertained for the plants, and religious processions were instituted for the purpose of exorcising the insects.[236]