GAZAM (nta ; Sept. xcil.trn ; Vulg. eruea); Joel. i. 4 ; 25 ; Amos iv. 9 ; in all which the A. V. renders by paltnerworm. Bochart observes that the Jews derive the word from M or In, to shear' or 'clip,' though he prefers CT: to cut ;' because, he observes, the locust gmaws the tender branches of trees, as well as the leaves. Gesenius urges that the Chaldaic and Syriac explain it as the young unfledged bruchus, which he considers very suitable to the passage in Joel, where the IVO be gins its ravages before the locusts ; but Dr. Lee justly remarks that there is no dependence to be placed on this. Gesenius adds that the root Inn in Arabic, and the Talmud, is kindred with Ca:, 'to shear'—a derivation which, however, applies to most species of locusts. Michaelis follows the Sept. and Vulg., where the word in each most probably means the caterpillar, the larvm of the lepidopterous tribes of insects (Stipp!. ad Lex., p.
29o, compared with Recited de Quest., p. 63). We have, indeed, the authority of Co'nmella, that the creatures which the Latins call emcee, are by the Greeks called Kciltrat, or caterpillars :— Animalia gum a nobis appellantur erucm, grmce autem Kcekorat nominantur ' (xi. 3) ; which he also describes as creeping upon vegetables and devour ing them. Nevertheless, the depredations ascribed to the vo in Amos, better agree with the charac teristics of the locust, as, according to Bochart, it was understood by the ancient versions. The Eng lish word palmerworm,' in our old authors, means properly a hairy caterpillar, which wanders like a palmer or pilgrim, and from its being rough, called also `beareworm' (Mouffet, Insectornin Theatrum, p. 186).