206 GRASSHOPPERS AND LOCUSTS 



California and the Eocky mountain country, and also by the Jesuits 

 of Lower California. 



The species found near Monterey, and examined in October, were 

 of a burnt sienna color, one inch and three-eighths long by one-eighth 

 of an inch thick, with three black blotches on each outer wing ; the 

 legs are also barred black ; the lower body parts of ochreous yellow ; 

 the inside wings, which are very thin, are yellowish, with a broad 

 black, fringe. The head is of a lighter color than the body, and is as 

 hard as the shell of a peanut. The mouth is armed with two hard, 

 black forceps, nearly one-eighth of an inch long, the inside edges of 

 which are bevelled inwards, finely serrated, and very keen. Four of 

 these October grasshoppers (males and full-grown) weighed thirty 

 grains. 



We may note here that the grasshoppers in July around Mon- 

 terey, where but few came this year, are not more than half the size 

 that they are in October. The species of grasshopper described 

 in Captain Stansbury's journey to the Salt Lake country, in 1850, and 

 figured and described by Professor S. Haldeman, is a species of the 

 Locusta different in size, colors, and particular features from that 

 found near Monterey. Haldeman calls this Salt Lake grasshopper 

 the Oedipoda corallipes, and says that it is congeric with the Oedipoda 

 migratoria of the English naturalists, and which is found so destructive 

 in Asia Minor and the Crimea, The corallipes is nearly as large as 

 the migratoria, being two and a half inches long. The California 

 grasshopper, or rather the species found near Monterey, I have seldom 

 seen over one and a half inches long, and it is not in any manner 

 colored "bright vermilion" in any part of its body, as is mentioned 

 by Haldeman of the Salt Lake species. There is only one species of 

 the Locusta described in the above work. It has either no antenna?, 

 or it is faintly delineated. The date of preservation or capture of this 

 Oedipoda of Utah is not stated by Haldeman. 



The following account from Cage's West Indies, page 368, will 

 show the effects of a visitation of the Locusta in the parishes of 

 Mixco and Pinola, and other parts of the uplands of Guatemala in 

 the year 1632: 



" The first year of my abiding there it pleased God to send one of 

 the plagues of Egypt to that country, which was of locusts, which I 

 had never seen till then. They were after the manner of our grass- 

 hoppers, but somewhat bigger, which did fly about in number so 

 thick and infinite that they did truly cover the face of the sun, and 

 hinder the shining forth of the beams of that bright planet. Where 

 they lighted, either upon trees or standing corn, there nothing was 

 expected but ruin, destruction, and barrenness; for the corn they de- 

 voured, the fruits of trees they ate and consumed, and hung so thick 

 upon the branches that with their weight they tore them from the 

 body. The highways were so covered with them that they startled 

 the travelling mules with their fluttering about their heads and feet. 

 My eyes were often struck with their wings as I rode along; and much 

 ado 1 had to see my way, what with a montero, wherewith I was fain 

 to cover my face, what with the flight of them which were still before 

 my eyes. The i'armers towards the South sea coast cried out, for that 



