STRUCTURES OF LOCUSTS. 187 



of pronotum into a cuspidate point, which K. & H. (1916, 152) 

 show to be a variable character, there is little to separate T. ar- 

 iin/tii from T. l<it('i<ilix and time may prove that the two species of 

 Tettigidea recognized by Say and Scudder, viz., lateralis and 

 jn-(irs<t, are all that really occur easl of the Mississippi River. 



Family VI. ACRIDII)^. 37 



THE LOCUSTS OR SHORT-HORNED GRASSHOPPERS. 



To this family of saltatorial Orthoptera belong those short- 

 horned grasshoppers or locusts which are so common in our mea- 

 dows and pastures and along our roadsides from mid-April until 

 after the heavy frosts of late autumn. They have the antenna?, 

 with few exceptions, much shorter than body, filiform, clubbed or 

 ensiform in shape, the joints distinct, and often, especially toward 

 the base, depressed; head usually short, and in the leading sub- 

 families extended horizontally; ocelli always present, and fove- 

 ohp usually so; prouotum variable in form and size, forming a 

 buckler or saddle-shaped shield covering the three segments of 

 thorax ; tegmina and wings, when present and in repose, resting 

 partly horizontal on the dorsal surface of abdomen and partly re- 

 flexed against its sides ; auditory or hearing organ located on the 

 side of the basal ring of abdomen ; front and middle legs subequal 

 in size, much smaller and shorter than the hind ones, the femora 

 of the latter being, as in the other saltatoria, very much enlarged 

 in their basal halves; tarsi 3-jointed and similar in structure on 

 all the legs, the first joint, usually the longest, with the under side 

 marked with two cross impressions which, when viewed from be- 

 low, make it appear to be composed of three segments; third or 

 apical segment of tarsus ending in a pair of curved claws which 

 enable the insect to catch and cling to blades of grass and other 

 objects on which it may alight, these claws with a pad (arolium) 

 between them; ovipositor consisting of four short, horny pieces, 

 the so-called valves, projecting from the tip of the abdomen, two 

 of which curve upward and two downward. 



The family name Acridida? is derived from the Latin Acnd'unn 

 meaning "a locust" and to the people of ancient times the "grass- 

 hopper'' of to-day was the "locust," one of the seven plagues of 

 Egypt. The scientific men of this country have long endeavored 

 to have our American Acridians called "locusts" but the majority 

 of the people persist in calling them "grasshoppers," and give the 

 name "locust 1 ' to those noisv insects which once each seventeen 



a7 Locustid,T? of Kirby dqio) and recent authors. 



