STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 165 



tody, becomes aerified tlirough the walls of the viscera, nourishes the 

 various organs, receiving effete matter, to be carried to the heart as 

 before. The heart of the locust has not yet been carefully studied. 



The respiratory apparatus of locusts is a complicated system of 

 trachea) or air sacks and tubes ramifying tliroughout the body, the 

 air entering by a row of spiracles or breathing holes in the sides of 

 the body— two pairs of thoracic and eight pairs of abdominal aper- 

 tures. Insects have no nostrils and do not breathe through the mouth. 

 Large air sacks are numerous in all parts of the body of locusts, being 

 especially large in the migratory species, enabling them to maintain 

 their flight at great elevations. The organs of special sense — touch, 

 taste, sight, and hearing — are remarkably developed in the locust. 

 The antenna?, ever in motion, are the principal organs of touch; the 

 palpi, of both touch and taste; while the large compound eyes, rein- 

 forced by three keen simple ones moving in sockets at pleasure, and 

 placed in the center of the forehead, enable the insect to see distinctly 

 and in every direction. But the auditory apparatus is most curious 

 and surprising. A large membrane, distended by a corneous ring, is 

 found, not on the head, but lying flat on the basal joint of the abdo- 

 men, under the wings. Beneath it are fluids, cartilaginous processes, 

 and an auditory nerve running to the third thoracic ganglion, or 

 brain, from which large nerves proceed directly to the large leaping 

 legs, showing an intimate relation between hearing and fleeing. Until 

 very recentl}^ the office of this auditory membrane was totally misun- 

 derstood, and the organs of hearing were supposed to be on the hind 

 legs. 



The nervous system of the locust is essentially the same as given 

 ior the class of insects — a large ganglion or sort of brain in the head, 

 connected by nerves with smaller ones on the floor of the body, one 

 central in each segment of the body and able to maintain life in its 

 part of the body some time after the insect is divided. 



The reproductive organs are too minute for common observation. 

 The ovaries when nearly ripe form a large mass lying in the upper 

 and forward part of the abdomen, which they greatly distend. Under 

 the fifth abdominal ganglion lies a pear-shaped pouch about half the 

 size of a ripe egg. This is the sehific gland, which secretes a copious 

 supply of mucus, sticky fluid, which is poured out upon the eggs as 

 they pass along the oviduct, agglutinating them into a mass when 

 deposited in the nest and forming a thin coating around each egg, 

 which under a strong magnifier is seen to be regularly pitted with 

 beautiful hexagonal indentations. 



SEXUAL HABITS. 



The love season commences at maturity of the locust— the last molt, 

 when wings are acquired — and continues until death. The males out- 

 number the females four or more to one. The locust is poh^gamous 

 and very salacious, the sexes remaining in cojnda several hours, at sev- 

 eral periods. So strong is the procreative instinct that the female with 

 her bunch of male attendants may often be seized by the heads and 

 examined without disturbance, and a couple united will often undergo 

 much annoyance, to the extent of thrusting through with pins or 

 plunging into fluids until death, without disconnecting! The female, 

 which is much the largest (as in all insects), carries the male along 

 •on her side while feeding, the male, meanwhile, inactive, except when 



