302 FAMILY VI. ACRIDIDJE. THE LOCUSTS. 



noon and upon search we found it on weeds, posts, and other somewhat ele- 

 vated places, apparently having retired for the night. It remained thus 

 until rather late in the morning, not becoming active until nearly nine 

 o'clock. While thus at rest, the insect is very sluggish and does not start 

 readily, making it easy to take such as may be desired. In the habit of 

 poising motionless in the air, this insect also resembles Dissosteira and 

 may be seen at times suspending itself in the air, much more like a but- 

 terfly in appearance than a locust." 



Subfamily III. LOCUSTINJE. 



(ACRIDIN2E.) 

 THE SPINE-BREASTED LOCUSTS. 



"Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud 



Of congregated myriads numberless. 



The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 



Of a broad river headlong in its course 



Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 



Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 



Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks!" Southey. 



The species of this subfamily may be easily recognized by the 

 presence of a distinct spine or tubercle on the prosternum be- 

 tween the front pair of legs. They vary much in size and general 

 appearance, and among them are found our most injurious insects 

 of the order Orthoptera. They have the head, in general, smaller 

 and less swollen than in the two preceding subfamilies; face rare- 

 ly (Leptt/snti) very oblique, usually nearly perpendicular ; disk of 

 vertex seldom sunken or concave, its sides low, rounded, often ob- 

 solete; foveolse usually wanting or indistinct; pronotum with disk 

 always free from tubercles and prominent wrinkles, its hind mar- 

 gin usually broadly rounded, never acute-angled ; median carina 

 always low and usually of nearly equal height throughout; lateral 

 carina?, with few exceptions, rounded or obsolete; tegmina usually 

 well developed, but in a number of species very short, and in a 

 few wholly wanting; inner wings (except in Romalea] never 

 brightly colored as in the Oedipodina?, but usually transparent. 



The prevailing color of most species of the subfamily is dull 

 olivaceous brown, though a number of them are so striped or mot- 

 tled with yellow, green or fuscous as to be decidedly handsome. 

 Among the members of the principal genus (Mclanopliis] there is 

 considerable variation in color locally, according to the character 

 of the station where found, and also seasonably, whether collected 

 early or late in the fall. As a rule specimens collected after a 

 number of hard frosts are duller, darker and more suffused than 

 summer examples, the coloration of the individual being appar- 

 ently considerably modified by such exposure. 



