Insects

Assassin bug.

Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.
— Holy Bible, Proverbs, 6:6.

Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer.
— Holy Bible, Proverbs 30:25.

Many various kinds of ants inhabit New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land; I know about a dozen species myself. One is a very formidable-looking personage, full an inch long, with a shiny coat of mail gleaming purple and blue, and a threatening sting, which I am told inflicts a most painful wound, as severe as that of the hornet.
— Louise Ann (Mrs Charles) Meredith, Notes and Sketches of New South Wales. London: John Murray, 1844, and Ringwood: Penguin Books, 1973, 69.

Whilst taking a few angles near the cliffs, we suddenly experienced a series of severe bites or nippings in several parts of our body, and looking round to discover whence arose this unexpected attack, found ourselves under a tree covered with large green ants. Their bites were exceedingly painful, and it was only by beating and tearing off our clothes that we could rid ourselves of these unwelcome visitors. From a distance our appearance must have been sufficiently amusing. One moment soberly intent upon our duties, and the next jumping like madmen, and hastily stripping off our garments. The name of Ant Cliffs records our visit to the south shores of Melville Island. The tide on this side of the strait ran nearly two knots an hour, following the direction of the shore; the time of high-water being a quarter of an hour earlier than in Adam Bay.
— John Lort Stokes, Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1, chapter 1.11.

Ants of all kinds abound, beginning with the universal pest, the sugar ant—so called from its known love of sweets. A basin of sugar or a jar of preserves left open for a few minutes is sure to be invaded by these saccharine Vandals, whose touch is pollution, imparting a peculiar and most disagreeable flavour to everything it falls on—a fact of which most incontestable evidence will be furnished by the nose and palate of any one who attempts to eat or drink out of the same cup with them.

Then there is the large soldier ant, who generally sticks pretty close to the outskirts of his hill or castle, and if you do not trouble him he will not frequently trouble you, but when he does, his bite is for the moment like the application of a red hot iron. The pain does not last very long, however, in which respect it differs from that of the poisonous little green ant, which is absolute torture at the time, and its effects last often for several days afterwards.
— ‘A Lady’ (Emma Macpherson), My Experiences in Australia, Being Recollections of a Visit to the Australian Colonies in 1856-7, 1860, 149.

Happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.
— Anna Pavlova (1881-1931), Russian ballerina.

It is said that the famous British biologist, J. B. S. Haldane … asked by a churchman what his concept of God was, answered: ‘He is inordinately fond of beetles’.
— Primo Levi (1919 – 1987), ‘Beetles’ in Other People’s Trades, 14

I believe that our very concept of beauty, necessarily relative and cultural, has over the centuries patterned itself on them, as on the stars, the mountains, and the sea. We have proof of this if we consider what happens when we examine the head of a butterfly under the microscope; for the greater part of observers, admiration is replaced by horror or revulsion.
— Primo Levi (1919 – 1987), ‘Butterflies’ in Other People’s Trades, 7.

March 28. A neighbour complained to me that her house was over-run with a kind of black-beetle, or as she expressed herself, with a kind of black-bob, which swarmed in her kitchen when they get up in a morning before daybreak. Soon after this account, I observed an unusual insect in one of my dark chimney-closets; & find since that in the night they swarm also in my kitchen. On examination I soon ascertained the Species to be the Blatta orientalis of Linnaeus, & the Blatta molendinaria of Mouffet. The male is winged, the female is not; but shows somewhat like the rudiments of wings, as if in the pupa state. These insects belonged originally in the warmer parts of America, & were conveyed from thence by shipping to the East Indies; & by means of commerce begin to prevail in the more N. parts of Europe, as Russia, Sweden &c. How long they have abounded in England I cannot say; but have never observed them in my house ‘till lately. [They had probably been there since late in the 17th century]
— Gilbert White (1720 – 1793), Journal, (1790), MIT Press, 1970.

When the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen-hearth swarms with minute crickets not so big as fleas. The Blattae are almost subdued by the persevering assiduity of Mrs. J. W. who waged war with them for many months, & destroyed thousands: at first she killed some hundreds every night.
— Gilbert White (1720 – 1793), Journal, (1792), MIT Press, 1970.

And you should never own to a mosquito. I once unfortunately stated to a Queensland gentleman that my coat had been bitten by cockroaches at his brother’s house, which I had just left. ‘You must have brought them with you then,’ was the fraternal defence immediately set up. I was compelled at once to antedate the cockroaches to my previous resting-place, owned by a friend, not by a brother. ‘It is possible,’ said the squatter, ‘but I think you must have had them with you longer than that.’ I acquiesced in silence, and said no more about my coat till I could get it mended elsewhere.
— Trollope, Anthony, Australia and New Zealand, London: 1873 and Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1967 (edited by Edwards and Joyce), 67.

In Australia, as everywhere, the mosquitoes sing their irritating ‘perpetual melody’, an imitation of Wagner. Grasshoppers are numerous, but less to be feared than in Egypt and Algeria. The flies are exceptionally obstinate, always wanting to take up residence on your face and hands. By their bright and pleasing colours the butterflies make any non-land-owner forget what damage their grubs do to agriculture.
— Oscar Comettant, In the Land of Kangaroos and Gold Mines, translated by Judith Armstrong. Adelaide: Rigby, 1980, originally published as Au Pays des Kangourous et des Mines d’or. Paris: Librairie Fischbacher, 1890, 78.

We had wandered too far from the camp to admit of our returning to it to sleep; we therefore commenced a search for water, and having found some, we tethered our horses near it for the night, and should have been tolerably comfortable, had not the mosquitoes been so extremely troublesome. They defied the power of smoke, and annoyed me so much, that, hot as it was, I rolled myself in my boat cloak, and perspired in consequence to such a degree, that my clothes were wet through, and I had to stand at the fire in the morning to dry them. Mr. Hume, who could not bear such confinement, suffered the penalty, and was most unmercifully bitten.
— Charles Sturt, Two expeditions into the interior of Southern Australia during the years 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831. 2 vols: London: Smith Elder and Co., 1833.

Early in January, I certainly did find it very hot in Victoria, but the heat was intermittent, lasting only for a few days; and though I am told that the mercury rose occasionally to 90º in the shade, I was not seriously oppressed by it. And I may add to this that Australian mosquitoes, of which I had heard much and which I feared greatly, were never so venomous to me as mosquitoes have been in other countries, nor are they in force for so large a proportion of the year. The mosquito of Australia is a poor, impotent and contemptible creature as compared, for instance, with the mosquito of the United States.
— Trollope, Anthony, Australia and New Zealand, London: 1873 and Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1967 (edited by Edwards and Joyce), pages 207-208.

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