o 237 
There is an Arab legend to the effect that “A locust unto Mahomet said: 
“We are the army of the great God; we produce ninety-nine eggs; if the 
hundred were completed, we should consume the whole earth and all that 
TFS! lea wee 
These locusts or short-horned grasshoppers are the Orthoptera which 
are so common in our meadows and pastures, on our city lawns, and along 
our roadsides from mid-April until late November. From tne eastern 
United States 120 species and 21 varieties of the Family Acrididae are rec- 
ognized by me, 51 species and ten varieties belonging to the single genus 
Melanoplus. Of the entire number 50 species and three varieties occur in 
Indiana, 52 species and 11 varieties in Florida, 22 species and one variety 
being common to both states and 50 species and eight varieties of the eastern 
forms not known from either of the two states. 
FAMILY Vi.—TETTIGONIDAE.—This family, formerly known as Locustidae, 
comprises our Orthoptera commonly known as katydids, long-horned green 
grasshoppers, cone-head grasshoppers, camel crickets, stone crickets, ete. 
Some of the larger green-winged forms—the true katydids—are either 
known to you in person or through their strident notes, one of them being 
quoted by Holmes as saying: 
“T sit among the leaves here, when evening zephyrs sigh, 
And those that listen to my voice I love to mystify ; 
I never tell them all I know, altho’ I’m often bid. 
I laugh at curiosity and chirrup, ’katy-did.’ ”’ 
There are many characters separating the Tettigoniidae from the locusts 
or Acrididae, one of the most interesting being that the auditory organ or 
ear is situated on the basal ring of the abdomen in the locust and on the 
tibiae of the front pairs of legs in the katydids, as also in the crickets. The 
males only of the winged forms stridulate, the note being a sexual or love 
call, but both sexes possess the auditory organ. In the wingless form of 
all Orthopterons both stridulating organs and ears are absent. As I 
have mentioned on another occasion before this Academy; These katydids 
and crickets were the first musicians of the earth, as by means of their 
shrilling organs they enlivened the solitudes of the strange old Devonian 
forests with their love calls and wooing notes. 
Ninety-seven species and 14 yarieties of Tettigoniidae are recognized from 
the Eastern States, 40 species and three varieties occurring in Indiana, 46 
species and nine varieties in Florida, ten species and one variety being com- 
mon to both states and 21 species and three varieties not found in either. 
FAMILY VIII.—GRYLLIDAE.—The Crickets—Some of the members of this 
family, as the ground and field crickets, are very common insects and famil- 
iar to all. Others, as the mole crickets, the tree crickets and bush crickets, 
are more often heard than seen. One of the smallest of our eastern species 
occurs only in the nests of ants. All are chiefly vegetable feeders and in 
the aggregate do much damage to forage and other crops. 
Forty-seven species and 14 yarieties or subspecies of crickets are known 
