360 FAMILY VI. ACRIDID.E. THE LOCUSTS. 



sissippi (Fig. 124). Contrary to the 

 general belief, it is not a large, robust 

 species, being but little larger than 

 our common eastern M. atlanis (Ri- 

 Fi g . 124. Meianopius spretis ley), and bearing to the latter a close 



general resemblance ; so close, in fact, 



that only specialists can readily tell them apart. Millions of dol- 

 lars of damage was done in the Western States by these small in- 

 sects in the summers of 1873 and 1875. Migrating in vast clouds 

 from one part of the country to another they would fall upon a 

 cornfield and convert, in a few hours, the green and promising 

 acres into a desolate stretch of bare, spindling stalks and stubs. 

 In the words of the prophet Joel : "The land was as the garden 

 of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness ; yea, 

 and nothing did escape them." 



On account of the great number of eastern species they are, 

 for convenience of treatment, first separated into two Divisions, 

 and each of these is then farther divided into smaller groups or 

 Series. The name given to each series in this work is that of the 

 first described eastern species of the series, and in general, espe- 

 cially in Division I, the series bear but little if any relation to 

 those of Scudder in his "Revision." The keys to series are based 

 largely on the males, the females being so similar in color and 

 structure that satisfactory characters for their inclusion could not 

 be found. 



KEY TO DIVISIONS OF EASTERN SPECIES OF MELANOPLUS. 



a. Tegmina much, shorter than abdomen, often shorter or no longer than 

 the pronotum; furcula of male almost always feebly developed, 

 often no longer than the last dorsal segment to which they are 

 joined. DIVISION I. p. 360. 



aa. Tegmina (except in the females of some borealis} as long as or longer 

 than the abdomen; furcula usually either well developed or obso- 

 lete. DIVISION II. p. 408. 



Division I. SHORT-WINGED SPECIES OF MELANOPLUS. 



The short-winged forms of Meianopius inhabit more commonly 

 thickets, woodlands and sides of wooded ravines, gulches and 

 mountain slopes rather than open fields and prairies. They sel- 

 dom wander far from their original hatching place and are there- 

 fore more local in distribution and more secretive in habits than 

 their long-winged congeners. The latter are considered the more 

 primitive, the short-winged ones having gradually evolved from 

 them by becoming adapted to a life where sustained flight is diffi- 

 cult or impossible. Hence along the wooded mountain slopes of 



