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Development and habits of the insect. — Mr. W. P. Moomaw, who owns 

 a large farm in the locality where the grasshoppers were the most abun- 

 dant, and to whom the writer is indebted for much valuable informa- 

 tion, informed me that he noticed them pairing in the month of May 

 of the present year, and that he observed the recently-hatched ones 

 early in June, while the first winged ones appeared early in the month 

 of August. This would indicate only one annual brood, the individuals 

 of which attain their wings late in summer or in the autumn, and pass 

 the winter in some sheltered place, pairing, and afterwards, depositing 

 their eggs early in the following summer. The eggs, as is the case 

 with those of other members of this family, are deposited in masses in 

 holes made in the ground by the female grasshopper, the ui)per end of 

 the egg-mass being nearly on a level with the surface of the earth. 

 There is great irregularity in the time of hatching of the eggs, since, 

 as stated above, recently -hatched larvae belonging to the species under 

 consideration were observed early in June and as late as the last week 

 in August, while by the date last given fully two-thirds of them had 

 already acquired wings. 



After issuing from the eggs, the young cast their skins five times 

 before attaining wings. The habits of the winged forms are very inter- 

 esting. Toward sunset numbers of them maybe seen flying into the 

 tops of neighboring trees, sometimes, in the case of a tall oak or 

 hickory tree, alighting in the tops of these from twenty to thirty or 

 more feet from the ground. Here they remain during the night, and 

 early on the following day they again fly to the ground, usually not 

 going any great distance from the trees in which they had passed the 

 night. In the early part of the day they were fond of frequenting 

 bare ground, especially the middle of roads and paths, while, if there 

 were any boards lying on the ground in that vicinity, these formed 

 favorite resting-places. Here they could be found congregated in large 

 numbers, lying partially upon one side, apparently enjoying to the 

 utmost the rays of the morning sun. Later in the day they could fre- 

 quently be found in large numbers upon the droppings of horses in the 

 roads, and they appeared to be feeding upon these droppings. Even 

 in the orchards and corn-fields the winged individuals were fre- 

 quently found upon the ground, although their favorite situations were 

 on the taller weeds, stalks of corn, or in trees. 



In the afternoon of August 28, the writer witnessed a partial migra- 

 tion of the winged ones. This began at about one o'clock and lasted 

 until half past three, there being a light breeze from the southeast 

 at the time. All of the grasshoppers did not rise on the wing at once, 

 but a few would start up in one place, some in another, and so on, until 

 several thousand would be upon the wing at the same time. All of 

 them took a northerly direction, and continued upon the wing until lost 

 to view. The majority flew obliquely upward until attaining a height 



