STRAIGHT-WINGED INSECTS. [41 



red find blue with black spots. The wings themselves, 

 when not expanded, are folded together like a fan, as 

 is the case with all other species. 



But all Grasshoppers, whether handsome or not, 

 are to be considered and classed as noxious insects. — 

 They devour every kind of vegetation, and were it 

 not for Nature's great law of compensation so admir- 

 ably carried out in our own highly- favored country, 

 this land would long since have been laid waste by the 

 ravages of these rapacious insects. As it is, an abun- 

 dance of majestic streams, lakes and ponds water our 

 country from all sides, and by their evaporation af- 

 ford sufficient rain for moistening the ground and 

 making it fruitful in the production of vegetables for 

 the support of man, as well as rendering it a fit abode 

 for numerous Eeptiles, such as snakes, turtles, lizards, 

 salamanders, frogs and toads. Now these reptiles all 

 feed more or less on insects, and in preference, on 

 Grasshoppers, of which they annually destroy an in- 

 numerable quantity. Hence these hideous reptiles 

 are the instruments made use of by a kind Providence 

 to rid us of a greater evil. We can only form an 

 estimate of the damage that would be done to vege- 

 tation were it not for these reptiles, by comparing our 

 country with the immense prairie lands of the East of 

 Europe, and several parts of Asia and Africa, which 

 are destitute of water and trees, and where for hun- 

 dreds of miles neither bird nor reptile can live, but 



