ItJg PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY. 



feed on the juices of plants ; thej are preyed upon by the lady bird, 

 aphis lion, beetles, wasps and flies. Drenching the plants with 

 a solution of whale oil soap, (one pound to three gallons of water) 

 will destroy them. 



Ortiioptera. 



Locusts, {Lociis/d' ) This is the correct name of what we call 

 the grasshopper, and comprises several species, which some seasons 

 ar<» very destructive to the farmer. They are so well known, it is 

 useless to describe them fully. The perfect insect lays an egg 

 from which hatches the larva. They are voracious, in all the stages 

 of their existence from the egg. During dry seasons, they often 

 commit great havoc, but they never commit such devastation in this 

 country as in the east, where they are a great scourge. Birds, 

 small mammals and domestic fowls destroy many of them, and many 

 methods have been employed, but they cannot be considered effectual. 



The grasshopper is generally of a green color, furnished with 

 wings and wing covers resembling a leaf, and live in trees princi- 

 pally, and on leaves. They are partly nocturnal, and lead a soli- 

 tary life. They lay their eggs in the autumn in the earth, and are 

 hatched in the following spring. 



The seventeen year locust, or red-eyed cicada, {Cicada Septen- 

 decim,) should not be confounded with either of the above named 

 species, being an entirely different insect ; belonging to the order 

 Hemiptera. This insect is remarkable for its periodical appearance, 

 as it is seen in different localities at different years, but always at 

 intervals of seventeen years, hence the name. It is a very large 

 black fly, with fur, glossy black wings, orange colored ribs and red 

 eyes Its depredations are principally confined to the forest trees, 

 but it occasionally feeds upon fruit trees. The perfect insect lives 

 on the juice of the tree, the female placing her eggs in the punc- 

 tures The pupaj, it is said, live on roots and grasses in the ground 

 for seventeen years, and at the appointed time come forth the perfect 

 insect. This is one of the most noted of American insects. No 

 means of preventing their ravages has been discovered. 



DlPTERA. 



The wheat midge, {cecidomyiu tritici.') The perfect insect is 

 an orange colored fly, about one-tenth of an inch long, slender legs, 



