190 



FAMILY VI. 



:. - THE LOCUSTS. 



Born with one earthly desire a voracious appetite and with 

 one valuable possession a pair of strong, broad jaws, which move 

 in and out like the blades of a pair of scissors the little hopper 

 soon begins to use the latter to appease the former, and during 

 his early life spends most of his time in gnawing away at the 

 soft, green succulent grass which surrounds him on every side. 

 Such a procedure can have but one result. His body soon becomes 

 too big for its surroundings. Something must give way, and that 



Fig. 71. Molting of a locust. o, nymph ready to change; b, the skin split along 

 the back and the adult emerging; c, continues the process; d, the adult insect drying 

 out; c, perfect adult. (After Riley.) 



something is his skin. He casts it aside, however, with but little 

 reluctance, for a new one is ready to take its place, and imme- 

 diately begins to satiate his appetite once more. Five successive 

 times his skin gets too small for his body and is cast aside. Be- 

 tween each of these moults the wings are growing, and when the 

 fifth skin is shed he emerges a mature and full fledged insect. 



However, all locusts do not pass the winter in the egg stage. 

 In the southern States, especially in Florida, the adults of a num- 

 ber of species can be taken almost any time between November 

 and March if one will only search for them in the proper places. 

 During the seven winters spent by the writer in central-western 

 Florida the adults of 30 species of the family Acridida* have been 

 secured, some of them being very abundant in their favorite abid- 

 ing places. A number of others winter there as nymphs, and in 

 Indiana and other northern states three or four species hatch in 

 early autumn and the young in various stages can, in suitable 

 localities, be seen jumping vigorously about on any warm sunny 

 day in mid-winter. If their presence at such a season comes to 

 the attention of a newspaper reporter, the press of the entire 

 region is apt to teem with warnings of a coming "grasshopper 



