THE GRASSHOPPER AND ITS ALLIES 3 



stalks and stubs. . . . Their flight may be likened to an immense 

 snow-storm, extending from the ground to a height at which our 

 visual organs perceive them only as minute, darting scintillations, , 

 leaving the imagination to picture them indefinite distances bej^ond. 

 ... In alighting, they circle in myriads about you, beating against 

 everything animate or inanimate ; driving into open doors and win- 

 dows; heaping about your feet and around your buildings, their jaws 

 constantly at work, biting and testing all things in seeking what they 

 can devour." 



The locusts of the Old World are likewise frequently 

 very destructive. The species that lives in southern 

 Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, Syria, Java, and Japan 

 is doubtless the locust of the Bible. The description 

 given by the prophet Joel is very vivid and accurate : - 



" A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick 

 darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains ; a great people 

 and a strong ; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any 

 more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth 

 before them, and behind them a flame burneth : the land is as the 

 garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilder- 

 ness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them 

 is as the appearance of horses ; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 

 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, 

 like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong 

 people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much 

 pained ; all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty 

 men ; they shall climb the wall like men of war ; and they shall march 

 every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. . . . They 

 shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall; they 

 shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows 

 like a thief." 



General Development of the Grasshopper. - The common 

 red-legged grasshopper lays its eggs during the fall in 

 holes in the ground which the female drills by means of 



