ORTHOPTERA. 155 



great swarms, and cast them into the sea. Vast numbers are 

 drowned by the high tides that frequently inundate our marshes. 

 They are subject to be attacked by certain thread-Hke brown or 

 blackish worms (Filaria), resembling in appearance those called 

 horse-hair eels (^Gordius). I have taken three or four of these 

 animals out of the body of a single locust. They are also much 

 infested by little red mites, belonging apparently to the genus 

 Oci/pete ; these so much weaken the insects by sucking the juices 

 from their bodies, as to hasten their death. Ten or a dozen of 

 these mites will frequently be found pertinaciously adhering to the 

 body of a locust, beneath its wing-covers and wings. A kind of 

 sand-wasp preys upon grasshoppers, and provisions her nest with 

 them. Many birds devour them, particularly our domestic fowls, 

 which eat great numbers of grasshoppers, locusts, and even 

 crickets. Young turkeys, if allowed to go at large during the 

 summer, derive nearly the whole of their subsistence from these 

 insects. 



