— 15 — 



oí times an individual female may la}' eggs before she dies a 

 natural death. The general testimony seems to point to but a 

 single ciirtiiclio of eggs; though some reports have claimed Irom 

 three to hve or even more layings for each female. The obser- 

 vations made and information gathered during the writer's 

 sojourn in the country seem to point to the popular opinion. 

 I'^om among thousands of gravid females gathered all over 

 the Republic and dissected for the purpose of trying to settle 

 this moot-point, there \vere, however, at least three or four 

 specimens found in which a secondary set of eggs showed quite 

 plainly while the nearly mature ones were still in the in- 

 sect's body. In these specimens there was apparently the full 

 complement of eggs in each set, viz., about eighty or a hundred. 

 MoLTixi;. — Since large numbers of the locust die during" the 

 process of molting or shedding their skin, it seems worth 

 while to brieily describe the process here. In doing this we can 

 choose no better words than those employed by Professor Rile}' 

 in describing the last molt of the Rock}' Mountain Locust. 



When about to acquire wings the pupa crawls up some 

 post, weed, grass-stallc, or other object, and clutches such 

 object securely with the hind feet which are drawn up under 

 the body. In doing so the favorite position is with the head 

 downward, though this is by no means essential. Remaining 

 motionless in this position for several hours, with antenniv 

 dra\vn down over the face, and the whole aspect betokening 

 helplessness, the thorax, especially between the wing-pads, is 

 noticed to swell. Presently the skin along this swollen portion 

 splits right along the middle of the head and thorax, starting' 

 by a transverse, curved suture between the eyes, and ending 

 at the base of the abdomen. 



Let us now imagine that \ve are watching one from the 

 moment of this splitting, and when it presents the appearance 

 of Fig. 5, (Í. As soon as the skin is split, the soft white fore 

 body and head swell and gradually extrude more and more by 

 a series of muscular contortions ; the new head slowly emerges 

 from the old skin, which, with its empty eyes, is worked back 

 beneath, and the new feelers and legs are being drawn from 

 their casings and the future wings from their sheaths. At the 

 end of six or seven minutes our locust — no longer pupa and 

 not yet imago ^ looks as in Fig. 5. h, the four front pupa legs 

 being generally detached and the insect hanging by the hooks 

 of the hind feet, which were anchored while yet it had that com- 



