38 



bony pieces, two of which curve upwards and two downwards (they may be observed in 

 figures 33 and 34) ; the female of the latter has a long curved, often sword-shaped, ovipositor. 

 The former, again, live upon the ground ; the latter for the most part on grass and trees. 



All Orthopterous insects — including, of course, those we are now treating of — undergo 

 what is termed an incomplete metamorphosis — th.it is to say, their larvae and pupoe resemble 

 all along the perfect insect, except that the wings are not full}- developed and the size of the 

 mature insect is not attained. To make our meaning clearer, we may mention that Lepi- 

 dopterous insects (butterflies and moths) undergo a perfect or complete metamorphosis ; as 

 every one knows, the caterpillar, or larva, is totally difF-rent from the winged insect, while 

 the chrysalis or pupa is entirely different from either. In food, habits and appearance, the 

 insect undergoes a complete change at each metamorphosis. In the case of Locusts, on the 

 contrary, one can hardly say with certainty when the larval state ends and that of the pupa 

 begins ; or when, again, the pupal condition merges into that of the perfect insect. 



The genus Caloptenus, to which we are now confined, is represented almost all over the 

 world. In North America eight different species have been described by entomologists, but 

 we are inclined to think that some of these are little more than varieties of others. Three 

 species only are prevalent in large numbers — viz., 0. spretus, C. feimir-ntbriim, and C. hivit- 

 tatus ; the last mentioned does not occur ia Cana la, so far as we are aware, and is of small 

 importance economically as compared with the other two. We are thus reduced to the 

 two species that we spoke of at the outset: our common red-legged Locust, or "grass- 

 hopper'' (Calopkmis fimiir-rubrvm Burm), represented in figure b ; and the hateful Locust 

 (C. spretus Uhler), figure a. 



F™- 33. The reader will observe '^'o- ^■ 



that there is but a very 

 slight difference in appear- 

 ance between the two spo- i 



• cies. The left hand, our ' 



J^ common species, only dif- ^ 



fers, one may say, from its most destructive fellow on the right, by its having shorter wings. 

 It is owing to this difference in length and expanse of wing that the one species is confined to 

 the neighbourhood where it was born, while the other rises aloft into the air, and is literally 

 '•'borne upon the wings of the wind'' to regions far away from its place of birth. 



As the Red-legged Locust must be so familiarly known by every one — during most 

 summers, indeed, it is hardly possible to walk a few yards in the open air without startling 

 numbers into flight — and as it is fairly represented in the above figure ( i ), we may content 

 ourselves with quoting the following brief descrintion by Dr. Harris. The in,?ect is "grizzled 

 with dirty olive and brown, a black spot extending from the eyes along the sides of the 

 thorax ; an oblique yellow line on each side of the body beneath the wings ; a row of dusky, 

 brown spots along the middle of the wing covers; and the hindmost shanks and feet blood- 

 red, with black spines. The wings are tranisparent, with a very pale, greenish yellow tint, 

 next to the body, and are netted with brown lines. The hindmost thighs have two large spots 

 on the upper side and the extremity black ; but are red below, and yellow on the inside. 

 The append;iges at the tip of the body in the male are of a long triangular foi-m. Length 

 from three quarters of an inch to an inch; expan.sion of the wings from IJ to 1| of an 

 inch." 



The Hateful Locust (C. Sprctm), figure a, can scarcely be distinguished in colour or 

 general appearance from the foregoing species ; the principal difference, as already stated, is 

 in the length of the wings. In this species they are about one-third longer than the body of 

 the insect ; they are quite transparent with slightly dusky nerves, and when seen high up in 

 the air against the sun, have the appearance of large snow flakes. The eggs are deposited in 

 the ground, in a cocoon-shaped mass, covered with a tough, glutinous secretion, and vary in 

 number from fifty to a hundred. They are laid in the latter part of the summer and remain 

 in their place of deposit until the following spring ; usually they hatch out in March, making 

 their appearance with the earliest vegetation of the locality. Tiiere is a good deal of difference 

 of opinion with regard to the headquarters of this insect; many writers affirm that all the 

 swarms comes from the canons of the Rocky Mountains ; others again, and with more reason, 

 we believe, hold that they breed throtighout all the mountain valleys and plains of the west, 

 but chiefly in those vast tracts of uninabited country, lying on the slopes of the Rocky 



