132 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



3. Locusts. (Locustadce.) 



The various insects included under the name of locusts nearly 

 all agree in having their wing-covers rather long and narrow, and 

 placed obliquely along the sides of the body, meeting, and even 

 overlapping for a short distance, at their upper edges, which 

 together form a ridge on the back like a sloping roof. Their an- 

 tennae are much shorter than those of most grasshoppers, and do 

 not taper towards the end, but are nearly of equal thickness at 

 both extremities. Their feet have really only three joints ; but 

 as the under-side of the first joint is marked by one or two cross 

 lines, the feet, when seen only from below, seem to be four or 

 five jointed. The females have not a long projecting piercer like 

 the crickets and grasshoppers, but the extremity of their body is 

 provided with four short, wedge-like pieces, placed in pairs above 

 and below, and opening and shutting opposite to each other, thus 

 forming an instrument like a pair of nippers, only with four short 

 blades instead of two. When one of these insects is about to lay 

 her eggs, she drives these little wedges into the earth ; these, 

 being then opened and withdrawn, enlarge the orifice ; upon 

 which the insect inserts them again, and drives them down deeper 

 than before, and repeats the operation above described until she 

 has formed a perforation large and deep enough to admit nearly 

 the whole of her abdomen. The males, though capable of pro- 



an insect which I suppose to be the Conocephulus dissimil/s of Serville. It was 

 taken in North Carolina by Professor Hentz. The conical projection of the head 

 is Shorter and more obtuse than in the ensiger, the sides of the thorax are brown- 

 ish, the hindmost thighs have a double row of black dots on the under-side, and 

 the spines on this part are more numerous and rather larger. Professor Hentz has 

 sent to me from Alabama another species distinct from both of these, about the 

 same in length, but considerably broader. The conical part of the head between 

 the eyes is broader, flattened above, and, as well as the thorax, rough like shagreen. 

 There is a projecting tubercle beneath, but the curved black line is wanting, and 

 the tip of the cone has a minute point abruptly bent downwards, and forming a 

 hook. The sides of the thorax are bent down suddenly so as to make an angular 

 ridge on each side of the middle. The wing-covers are dotted with black around 

 their edges, and have also an irregular row of larger and more distinct spots along 

 the middle. The hindmost thighs have a double row of strong spines beneath, 

 and the piercer is straight and only about six tenths of an inch long. This insect 

 may be called Conoccphalus wiciTiatus, from the hook on the tip of the head. 



