THE INSECT WORLD. 



87 



age in roads, fields, or meadows, but not favoring dark woods. 

 They have no external ovipositor, but the female is furnished 

 with four horny valves, between which the eggs pass, and which 

 are also useful in making the hole, in soil or wood, into which the 

 eggs are laid. The term "short-horned," as applied to these 

 insects, is relative, and means that the antennae are moderately 

 stout, the joints well marked, and the whole member not as long 

 as the entire insect, — in fact, rarely even half as long. A curious 



Fig. 53. 





Rocky Mountain locust ovipositing. — a, a, females with abdomen inserted in the soil ; 

 b, an egg-pod broken open and lying on the surface ; c, a few scattered eggs ; d, section 

 of soil removed to show eggs being put in place ; e, an egg-pod completed ; /, an egg- 

 pod sealed over. 



character is a pair of ears situated one on each side of the basal 

 segment of the abdomen, and we therefore expect and do find 

 that most of the species are capable of making some kind of 

 song or noise, though this ability is confined to the male. 



A series of species characterized by a very receding front, 

 meeting the vertex of the head in an acute angle, is referred to 

 the sub-family Tryxalmcz, of which there are many species 

 throughout our country, none of them abundant enough to be 

 injurious. They are partial to low, sedgy land or meadows, es- 

 pecially on sandy soil, and I have met with the species most 

 abundantly near the sea, or on the sandy plains not far inland. 

 Some species are common on or near cranberry bogs, but are not 

 injurious. 



Quite a series of species is referred to the sub-family CEdipodincB^ 



