INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS OP CALIFORNIA. 43 



Distribution. — This species is common throughout the State and 

 often becomes a serious pest in the central and southern parts, especially 

 in or near low hilly districts. 



Food Plants.— The pellucid grasshopper is specially destructive to 

 grasses, including barley, oats and wheat. Alfalfa is seldom attacked. 

 Sugar beets and other field crops are sometimes seriously injured, a 

 special case of this kind occurring in Ventura County in the early sum- 

 mer of 1914. 



THE LESSER MIGRATORY LOCUST 21 



Melanoplus atlanis Riley 



Description. — The adults are dull brownish with a row of distinct 

 dark spots along the middle of the wing covers, which are consider- 

 ably longer than the body. The dark bar on each side of the pro- 

 thorax is broken near its middle. The tip of the last abdominal 

 segment is pointed above with a notched apex. The average length is 

 about 1 inch. 



Life History.— The eggs are deposited in a pod resembling a flask 

 just beneath the surface of the ground, each female laying from one 

 to four masses containing from twenty to thirty-six eggs in each. 

 The young hatch the following spring and maturity is reached in 

 from two to three months. Eggs are deposited in July and August 

 and during warm late seasons some of these hatch giving rise to an 

 imperfect second brood. It is migratory in habit and under favor- 

 able climatic conditions increases very rapidly, often becoming a 

 serious pest. It has no particular breeding ground. 



Distribution.— This is a species which is widely dispersed and may 

 be found in all parts of the State. 



Food Plants.— Like many others, this grasshopper attacks nearly 

 all kinds of cultivated and non-cultivated crops. Grasses, forage 

 crops as alfalfa, clover, timothy, garden crops like corn, muskmelon, 

 potatoes and watermelon are devoured. 



THE TWO-STRIPED GRASSHOPPER 



Melanoplus bivittatus (Say) 

 (Gryllus bivittatus Say) 



Description.— This species varies considerably in size and color but 

 is usually olive green or dark brown and slightly over 1 inch long 

 and | inch wide at the base of the wings. There is a distinct yellow 

 stripe on each side of the dorsum from which the common name is 

 derived. The tibiae vary from yellow to red. It is decidedly more 

 robust than the other common species of the genus which are native 

 to the State. 



Life History. — This form occasionally makes flights with other 

 species, but its attacks are usually local. It often becomes abundant 

 enough, however, to do much damage. It appears about March and 



=4 The Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus Uhler, is taken sometimes in this 

 State on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but as it has never become 

 of economic importance a description is not included here. 



