PHYLUM ARTHROPODA — CLASS INSECTA 315 



for jumping. The abdomen is usually provided with jointed eerei, 

 and an ovipositor is generally present. About seventeen thousand 

 species have been described. 



Some of the common families and species found in many of the 

 western states are, first, the Locustidae, or grasshoppers; the spe- 

 cies of this family are widely distributed and are of economic im- 

 portance, doing great damage to crops and forage plants. The 

 family is divided into three subfamilies, Locustinae, Tryxalinae, 

 and Oedipodinae. The red-legged locust, Melanoplus f emur-nibrum 

 (Fig. 177) (DeG.) ; Haldeman's locust, Hippiscus comllipes Hald; 

 the Shoshone grasshopper. Schist ocerca sliosJione (Thomas) ; the two- 

 striped Mermiria, Mermiria hivittata (Serville) ; and the western 

 meadow grasshopper, Conocephalus vicinus Morse, are of considerable 

 economic importance and are widely distributed throughout the 

 western states. 



The family Tettigonidae consists of the katydids, cave crickets, 

 camel crickets, and sand crickets. The Mormon cricket, Analjrus sim- 

 plex Hald, is one of the most destructive insects found in this order. 

 It has attracted much attention since the Mormon pioneer days of 

 1848 when it overran the fields of the pioneers and would have de- 

 stroyed all the grain crops, had the sea gulls not devoured them in 

 great quantities and so reduced their numbers that the growing grain 

 was saved. A sea gull monument commemorating this event has been 

 erected on the temple grounds in Salt Lake City (Fig. 178). 



The katydids, Scudderia furcata Brunner and Microcentrum reti- 

 nerve (Burmeister) are widely distributed in the western states. 

 Hubbell in his classical study of cave crickets and camel crickets 

 reports more than eighty species. The following species Ceutliophilus 

 utahensis Thomas; C. agassizi Scudder; C. conicaudus Hubbell; and 

 C. nodidosus Brunner are fairly common. 



The sand cricket, or "child of the earth," Stenopelmatus fasciatus 

 (Thomas), is also a very interesting member of this family. 



The family Blattidae is represented by such common species as the 

 American cockroach, Periplaneta americana (L.) ; the German roach, 

 Blatella germanica (L.) ; the oriental cockroach, Blatta orientalis L. ; 

 and Orenivaga erratica (Rehn), a native species of the western 

 United States (Fig. 180). 



Fig. 182. — Some common Hemiptera. 1, adult box-elder bug, Leptocoris trivit- 

 tatus Say ; 2, adult false chinch bug ; S, nymph or immature false chmch bug ; i, 

 adult Nnhis ferns L; 5. male bedbug; 6. female bedbug, Giniex lectulanus L. 

 (From Knowlton, permission Utah Agricultural Experiment Station.) 



