STATE AGRICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 17a 



which it sometimes claps together with a loud, rattling sound for a 

 minute or so, while the insect is poised in the air about eighteen 

 inches above the ground, is entirely harmless, but the length of wing 

 makes it capable and very suspicious. 



A large, green-striped locust, two and a half inches long, having a 

 large spine under its neck — so belonging to the Acridini, or Spine- 

 bearers — is common, feeding upon the plants of the Umbellifer fam- 

 ily, found along streams and also upon garden vegetables of the 

 group. The wings, however, are very short, while the body is large 

 and its movement slow and clumsy. 



The " coral-wing," one and one-half inches long, is common, dis- 

 tinguished by the pink or yellowish base of its under wings, its red 

 tibia, and by the clapping of its wings as it hurries away. A variety 

 of this species, flying late in the season, is very dark, almost black, 

 with bright pink wings. 



Another locust, about the size of atrox, and colored like the females, 

 has a very imvard sloping face, while the atrox face is nearly vertical. 

 This belongs to the Truxalid group of innocents. 



A fifth very beautiful species looks remarkably like the migratory 

 atlanis described; has the same bright, contrasting colors, with the 

 white line noted on the latter as passing obliquely down from the base 

 of the wdngs to the thigh, also it has the very suspicious little spine 

 under the neck. But it has only short, nearly useless wings, its thighs, 

 are brightly chevroned with white and olive, and its tibia are a deli- 

 cate blue. 



A sixth, sometimes common little species, is the "grouse locust," a 

 species of Tettix. It is only half an inch long, readily distinguished 

 from the young of other species by its having long wings, a small 

 head, and its neck is large and full below — i. e., on the same plane 

 with the rest of the thorax, and advanced upon the mouth like a 

 muffler — the latter characters putting it in the large and harmless 

 group of Tettiginx. This little fellow hibernates in the half-grown 

 state like many of the preceding, and may appear during sunny 

 winter days hopping or flying about, causing the alarm that "the 

 locusts are hatching." 



TRUE MIGRATORS IN CALIFORNIA. 



Not only are species of the destructive Caloptenus family known to 

 have committed ravages on this coast since recorded events, but the 

 species C. femur-rubrum, the "red-leg," and C. atlanis, the "lesser'^ 

 locust, breed here regularly, and may at any time become abundant 

 and migratory, hence their habits will bear close watching. To dis- 

 tinguish them we have only to familiarize ourselves with the dis- 

 tinguishing characters set forth where these species were described, 

 and remember that other "red-legged" species have no s-pine; and 

 that the beautiful similitude of the atlanis described has very short 

 wings and blae shanks, while the wings of the atlanis are often a 

 fourth to half an inch longer than the abdomen, giving great power 

 for flight. 



On August 18th, of 1877, Professor A. S. Packard, of the United 

 States Locust Commission, found atlanis sparsely in the alfalfa fields 

 about Reno, in damp or shaded places, while our CEdipjoda atrox 

 abounded in drier places, on the plains, and by the roadsides. At 



