138 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



that they were so thick and destructive in the garden and grounds 

 of his father, that the negroes were employed to drive them from 

 the garden with rods ; and in this way they were repeatedly 

 whipped out of the grounds, leaping and flying before the ex- 

 tended line of castigators like a flock of fowls. Some of these 

 insects were brought to me by the same gentleman, on his return 

 to the University, at the end of the summer vacation, and they 

 turned out to be specimens of the red-legged locusts already men- 

 tioned. 



It is not to be supposed that these are the only depredatory 

 locusts in this country. Massachusetts, alone, produces a large 

 number of species, some of which have never been described ; and 

 the habits of many of them have not been fully investigated. The 

 difficulty which 1 have met with in ascertaining, from mere verbal 

 reports, or from the accounts that occasionally appear in our pub- 

 lic prints, the scientific names of the noxious insects which are the 

 subjects of such remarks, and the impossibility, without this 

 knowledge of their names, of fixing upon the true culprits, has 

 induced me to draw up, in this treatise, brief descriptions of all 

 our locusts, as a guide to other persons in their investigations. 



All the locusts of Massachusetts, that are known to me, may 

 be included in three large groups or genera, viz : Acrydium (of 

 Geoffroy and Latreille), Locusta (Gryllus Locusta of Linnaeus), 

 and Telrix (of Latreille). These three genera may be distin- 

 guished from each other by the following characters.* 



* I have not considered it necessary to give, in addition to these, the characters 

 that distinguish them from the other genera of American Locusts, which are not 

 found in Massachusetts ; but add the characteristics of these genera in this note. 



Opsomala. Body slender and cylindrical ; head long and conical, extending 

 with an obtuse point between the antenna? ; eyes oblong oval and oblique ; an- 

 tenna? short, flattened, and more or less enlarged towards the base and tapering 

 towards the point; a pointed tubercle between the fore-legs on the breast; wing- 

 covers narrow and pointed ; face sloping down towards the breast, and forming 

 an acute angle with the top of the head. 



Truxalis. Body rather thicker ; head shorter, but ending in a blunt cone be- 

 tween the antenna*; eyes oval and oblique ; antenna? short, flattened, enlarged 

 near the base, and tapering to a point; no tubercle between the fore-legs ; wing- 

 covers wider and not so pointed ; face sloping towards the breast, and forming an 

 angle of forty-five degrees with the top of the head ; thorax flat above, and marked 

 with three longitudinal elevated lines. 



