62 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



time the insect leaves the Qgg, and its life as a fully 

 grown insect is rarely longer than six weeks. 



From time to time certain types of grasshoppers 

 appear as plagues, destroying every vestige of vege- 

 tation that happens to lie in their track. They move 

 forward as a seething mass, rendering grass pad- 

 docks almost as bare as the roadway. Nature to a 

 limited degree has her own remedies. In a cold, 

 wet winter, great numbers of eggs are destroyed by 

 frost and rain. Birds, beetles, and wasps are also 

 enemies of the egg stage. 



A parasitic fly {Sari-cophaga aurifrons) lays its 

 eggs on the adult grasshopper, and the larvae de- 

 vour the soft parts. 



Birds, perhaps, are responsible for ridding us of 

 the greatest number. The quantity taken from the 

 crop of an Ibis or Brush Turkey is amazing. 



Some species of plants, such as Delphinium, are 

 poisonous at times to the grasshoppers. 



Locusts are very tenacious of life, and can be 

 submerged in water for some time and yet revive. 



When the grasshopper becomes a plague in any 

 district, more speedy remedies, however, than those 

 already mentioned have to be resortd to. A heavy 

 roller passed over the ground in the hopping stage, 

 before the wings have developed, has proved a 

 useful check. 



A good contact spray can be made from kerosene, 

 soap and water, in the proportion of i gallon of 

 kerosene, i or 2 lbs. of soap, and 7 gallons of water. 

 The soap is dissolved in 2 gallons of boiling water, 



