Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions: A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; And a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.

Long before biology and folklore converged in academic discourse, Frank Cowan assembled this curious compendium in the mid-19th century. Rather than cataloging insects by specimen alone, he pursued something stranger: the legends, superstitions, and ominous signs that have surrounded these creatures across centuries and civilizations. He culled accounts from chronicles and travel books, weaving scientific observation with the irrational fears and magical beliefs humans have projected onto insects, spiders, and scorpions. The result reads like a Victorian cabinet of wonders, where a ladybird carries omens of death or prosperity depending on the region, where spiders forecast the weather, and where beetles figure in remedies ranging from the plausible to the implausible. Cowan documents their uses in medicine, their appearances in art, and their roles as food in different societies, creating a portrait of humanity as much as of the creatures themselves. This is natural history infused with the supernatural, a window into a world where the crawl of a scorpion could mean imminent danger and the appearance of a certain moth foretold catastrophe. For readers who delight in the strange byways of human belief, who wonder what our ancestors saw when they looked at the small things that share our world, this book remains an irresistible expedition.