216 EEPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



of lakes and streams. Ilaiu-oek has written entertainingly of their 

 habits as follows: 



"Tlie jump of tlie grouse locust is peculiar in tliat it is quick and 

 inconspicuous and in this that it alights almost invariably on the 

 ground. The young of the larger Orthoptera iisually alight on grass 

 or stems of plants, dodging behind them for protection. Tlie re- 

 nuirkable color of tliese little Acridians, harmonizing in every in- 

 stance with the" soil, makes it sometimes difficult to locate them. 

 This protective resend)hince is carried out to perfection, the little 

 insects living on tlie soil scattered with debris faded out by lliu hut 

 sun, and the lights and shadows, in whatever way they play, are 

 copied exactly. No shade, color or arrangement of markings seems 

 impossible of simulation, and every individual is a study in color 

 harmony. 



'"The grouse locusts feed upon the vegetable mold or decomposing 

 soil sometimes mixed with a]ga% or on the lichens, mosses, tender 

 sprouting grasses, sedges, germinating seeds of plants and debris 

 found in such situations. Particularly sought-after morsels are the 

 various colored surface clays and the black muck, consisting of rich 

 vegetable mold. They are ravenous eaters, as one might infer- from 

 the dietary list just mentioned, and the fecal excrement, on reaching 

 Ihe end of the abdominal appendages, is thrust away from the body 

 by a rapid kick of the hind tibia. 



"•Fn the middle of May (Illinois) the first eggs are laid in the 

 ground, the female accomplishing this act by making a shallow bur- 

 row with her ovipositor. The young larvae, hatched from this brood, 

 mature by fall, passing the following winter in the adult state. The 

 broods hatched in late June and early July are often immature by 

 the time winter arrives, and we find them hibernating in the pupa 

 state. Thus it is that the Tettiginas are about the earliest insects to 

 be found in the spring, appearing as early as March. The time of 

 ineiibafion varies with the temperature, the early broods of Tetlir 

 hatching in twenty-three days, but as the days become warmer this 

 period is shortened to sixteen days. The number of eggs of Tettix 

 and ravdlvHiv vary coiisidei'aMy. but there are more often 10, 13 or 

 1() in each burrow; in TcUighlca varying from 12 to 20. 



"^'During the life of these little Tettigians they are more or less 

 constanlly in danger of enemies among the arachnida, insecta, and 

 some of the vertebrata. The larva of a red mite (Trombidian) is 

 one of the most frequent sources of annoyance. Acting as a parasite 

 the Trombidian larva clings on the body and attaches itself out of the 

 reach of the victim. There it remains to sap the juices of the host's 



