27 



The injury is chiefly caused by the feeding habits of the adult of one 

 species of Scudderia which chews into the berries when half to full 

 grown, rejects the pulp, and eats the seeds. Other species belonging to 

 Microcentrum and other genera have similar habits, but occur more 

 rarely. The injured berries wilt, shrivel, and die; but when they 

 have just been left b}^ the katydids, the common, shorthorned grass- 

 hoppers feed on the exposed pulp and, being detected in this, are quite 

 generally charged with having- caused the entire trouble. One katy- 

 did may eat out several berries at one sitting, and when the insects are 

 at all abundant the percentage of fruit destroyed is very large; on 

 some bogs the amount reaches almost or quite one-half the entire crop. 



Fig. 11.— a cranberry-eating katydid (after Riley). 



The katydids when mature are green, grasshopper-like insects, with 

 very long antennae, or feelers, and long slender hind legs. The fore 

 wings are also green and are narrow, a little thickened, not used in 

 flight. The hind wings arc decidedly longer, much broader, very 

 much thinner, almost transparent, and longitudinally folded under 

 the fore wings when at rest. Fully expanded, these wings measure 

 from 2 to 2i inches between tips, and the body is about li inches in 

 length. In the male there is a little triangular area at the base of the 

 fore wings where they overlap, and where a few ridge-like veins form 

 a musical instrument by means of which they produce their chirping 

 song or call. In the female this structure is absent, but we find at 

 the end of the abdomen a broad scimitar or sickle- shaped ovipositor, 

 b}^ means of which the eggs are laid. 



The young wingless katydids are found around and at the edges of 

 the bogs about the middle of June, but do not mature until early in 

 the following August. Not until they reach the pupal stage, after 

 the middle of July, does the berry-feeding habit become developed, 

 but from that time until the fruit is picked their fondness for this 

 kind of food increases, and the insects themselves increase in number 

 on the bogs. The first eggs are laid about the middle of September 

 and the laying continues until about the same period in October. By 

 that time the insects have disappeared and nothing more is seen of 

 them until June of the following year. 



The eggs are laid chiefly in two kinds of grasses, locally known as 

 "deer grass" (fig. 12) and "double-seeded millet," scientifically re- 



178 



