Common along the sides of roads and fields is a dusky grasshopper, 

 showing as it flies a dark hind wing with white border. Frequently 

 it pauses in the air, flitting its wings before alighting. This is the 

 Carolina Locust {Dissosteira Carolina), or "dust-hopper," so called 

 from its fondness for roadsides and dusty places. This familiar insect 

 belongs to the subfamily (Edipodinm, a group characterized by rough 

 prominent ridge on crest of prothorax, the hood-shaped part immedi- 

 ately behind the head. While these are injurious at times, they do 

 not, in this country, possess migratory instinct to any great extent. 



The next group, the Acridiinct3, contains our most injurious forms. 

 The prothorax is usually smooth on top, the breast between front legs 

 usually extended into a tubercle. To this group belong those grass- 

 hoppers that migrate, and those that thrive well on cultivated crops 

 in the locality of birth. The development of grasshoppers differs 

 somewhat in detail, such as time and manner of depositing eggs. 



LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 



The life-history and habits of the Rocky Mountain Locust have 

 been more fully worked out than any other, and we give it as typical, 

 in part after Riley. 



Where Eggs Are Laid. — The eggs may be laid in almost any kind 

 of soil. The female prefers, however, bare sandy places, especially on 

 high ground, not too compact, but moderately loose. We have 

 watched the female spend 15 minutes in trying the consistency of the 

 soil before finding a satisfactory place for oviposition. Crevices in 

 the earth were not acceptable, though in two instances the abdo- 

 men was inserted well into the opening, only to be withdrawn to try 

 elsewhere. Compact sandy soil, with south or east slojDe, is much 

 preferred. The egg mass seldom reaches more than an inch below 

 the surface. M. spretus chooses the soil. Instances are recorded 

 where M. differentialis deposited eggs under bark of trees that had 

 been felled on low land. 



Manner in Which Eggs Are Laid. — When a suitable place is 

 found, the female forces a hole in the ground by means of two pairs 

 of horny-tipped appendages, which open and shut at the end of her 

 abdomen, and from their peculiar structure are well adapted for the 

 work. See plate V, fig. 10, A. With tips closed she pushes her ab- 

 domen into the ground, and by a series of muscular efforts and contin- 

 ued opening and closing of the two pairs of appendages she drills a 

 hole, until nearly the whole abdomen is buried. The hole is more or 

 less curved, and when completed she commences ovipositing. The 

 eggs are bound together in a mass by a mucous fluid which at first 



