CHAP. XIV.] GRASSHOPPERS, CRICKETS AND TERMITES. 137 



Chapter XIV. 

 GRASSHOPPERS, < RICKETS AND TERMITES. 



swarming in the shrubs and trees, 



i, earwig, hectic families. 

 Ants, whiti ire busy in the soil, 



Their dwellings raising with ingenious toil. 

 Locusts are feasting to their hearts' content, 

 Anil with Cicadas' shrieks the air is rent. 



re chirruping amongst the plants, 

 lilies thickly crowd in land anil water h 

 May, dragon, caddis, snake and scorpion tlie- 

 i I'er pools and marshes in their myriads rise. 

 And, spite of foes without and civil strife, 

 The insect world keeps pace with higher life : 

 Spreading in countless hosts through wood and brake 

 ho of insects shall a census take ?) 

 hill and dale, by sea and lake and pond. 

 I'p in the air. upon, and underground." 



Knipe — Nebula to Man. 



The idea of Grasshoppers as crop-pests usually calls up recol- 

 lections of descriptions of hordes of locusts flying in vast swarms 

 from one district to another, darkening the sky during their flight 

 and instantly making a barren wilderness of the places where they 

 alight. Such flights of locusts are well known in many parts of 

 India and occasionally the Bombay locust ( ' Cyrtacanthacris succincta) 

 migrates from its breeding-grounds in the Deccan into the districts 

 of Bellary, Kurnul and Anantapur in large flights which would be 

 very destructive were it not for tin- fat t that they usually take place 

 m June when there are practically no crops on the ground in those 

 parts. So far as Southern India is concerned, therefore, locusts 

 are only occasional and rather minor pests, but the damage done 

 Of various kinds is very large in the aggregate. 

 because some species at ]. . 1 1 all times of the year, 



and their accumulated damage throughout the year all over the 

 Presidency probably totals to considerably more than more striking 

 loss caused by locusts in a more limited area. 



Ihe Bombay Locust itself occurs regularly throughout Madras, 

 not. however, as a swarming locust but as solitary individuals. 

 Another commoner and closely-allied form is Cyrtacanthacris ranacea 

 which is the common large spotted grasshopper of cotton-fields. 

 In Bellary and Kurnul a winglos grasshopper (Colemania sphena- 

 rioides) has achieved notoriety of late years as a pest of cereals and 



