ORTHOPTERA 



57 



inches long and resembles closely the red-legged locust but has somewhat 

 longer wings. In past years when the food of this locust has become 

 scarce in its high dry home, it has migrated to the lower and more fertile 

 regions of Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska where it has devastated the crops 

 over large areas. 



It will be remembered that at one time it almost produced a famine 

 in Kansas and the neighboring states. Fortunately the young of this 

 insect hatched in the low regions are not healthy, and die before reaching 

 maturity. Consequently the plagues caused by the emigration of this 

 insect are of short duration. There are several other species of Melano- 

 plus common in this country, but they can be distinguished only by very 

 careful study. One, the "big yellow locust", Meldnoplus dijjferentialis, is 

 about if inches long, yellowish-brown in color and often so abundant 

 in the middle West that it injures fields of grass and grain very seriously. 

 The Carolina locust, Dissostclra Carolina, is common throughout the 

 United States and Canada, and at the North is our largest species. It 

 lives in roads and on bare places, and its color matches the soil on which 

 it lives. It is usually pale yellowish or reddish-brown or slate color, with 

 small dusky spots. The hind wings are 

 black, with a broad yellow edge. It meas- 

 ures from one inch and a half to nearly 

 two inches in length. 



The clouded locust, Encoptolophus sor- 

 didus (Fig. 96), is very common in the 

 Eastern United States during the au- 

 tumn. It abounds in meadows and pastures, and attracts attention by the 

 crackling sound made by the males during flight. Its color is dirty brown, 

 mottled with darker spots. 



The American locust, Schistocerca americana, is a fine species nearly 



3 inches long. It 

 is found in the 

 southern states 

 and as far north 

 as Connecticut 

 and Iowa (Fig. 

 97). The pellucid 

 locust, Cam- 

 nula pelliicida, 

 scarcely an inch 

 in length, has 

 clear pellucid 

 south to Arizona. 



Fig. q6. — Encoptolophus sordidus. 



It 



is a large, clumsy species 

 it is confined to the cen- 



Fig. 07. — Schistocerca americana. (From Riley.) 



hind wings and occurs in the northern United States 

 is often injurious to crops. 

 The lubber grasshopper, Brachystola magna, 

 in which the wings are vestigial 

 tral portion of North America. 



The pigmy locusts. — There is a group of small locusts 

 of which Acrydium (Fig. 98) is an example, which is no- 

 table for the shape of the pronotum. This projects back- 

 ward like a little roof over the wings, and often extends beyond the end of 

 the abdomen. With these insects the wing-covers are reduced to small 

 rough scales, the wings being protected by the large pronotum. These in- 



Fig. oS. — Acrydiur, 



