2 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



sippi River in great abundance, chiefly in all the 

 four wings being very much longer, so that, instead 

 of flying only a few yards at a stretch, it can with 

 ease fly a great distance. In a female specimen of 

 the former, which I have measured, the wings ex- 

 pand from tip to tip if^j inches, and the front 

 wing is 1.03 inches long; in a female specimen of 

 the latter of exactly the same size they expand on- 

 ly 1 1 inches and the front wing is only 0.80 inch long. 

 In the male sex the diiference is not quite so great, 

 but still it is sufficiently characteristic. And these 

 diflTerences are found to be constant and permanent, 

 and not to occur in a few specimens only of each 

 species, and to pass by insensible gradations from 

 one species to the other. Hence, in spite of ths 

 almost absolute identity of all the other characters, 

 we are bound to consider the two insects as distinct 

 species. Whether they have always been thus dis- 

 tinct for all preceding time, is another and a very 

 difi'erent question. According to Dr. Velie, who 

 supplied me with specimens from Colorado, it is 

 this same Caloptentis sprelus, which often does 

 great damage in that Territory ; and there can be 

 little doubt that it is the same insect which has from 

 time to time invaded Minnesota. The name "spre- 

 tus" means "despised," and refers apparently to its 

 having been hitherto despised or overlooked by 

 Entomologists. In fact, as before stated, I believe 

 that this is the first occasion, on which it has been 

 mentioned in print in such a manner, that it can be 

 scientifically identified. We may call it in English 

 "The hateful Grasshopper." 



Before I proceed to recount the ravages of this 

 " Hateful Grasshopper," it may be as well to state 

 for the thousandth time, that the insects popularly 

 called "Locusts" in North America have nothing 

 whatever to do with the Locusts of Scripture and 

 of modern Europe, and do not even belong to the 

 same Order, or to the same grand group of Orders. 

 The former are " Suckers ;" the latter are " Biters." 

 The former belong to the Order Ilomoptera; the 

 latter to the Order Orthoptcra. The former have 

 their front wings glassy and transparent ; the latter 

 have them more or less leathery and opaque. The 

 former have a mere apology for antennaj, which 

 the general observer would entirely overlook ; the 

 latter have quite conspicuous and rather long an- 

 tennse. It is to the former that the so-called 

 ''Seventeen-year Locust" {Cicada scptendecim) 

 belongs; but, as the term "locust" gives rise to so 

 much confusion, it would be better to drop it alto- 

 u-cther and call this insect "the seventeen-year Ci- 

 cada." It is remarkable that, although these 

 American bogus "locusts" (or cicadas) are physi- 

 cally incapable of eating, seeing that they have no 

 jaws to eat with, yet the earliest account we have 

 of them asserts, that "they did cat vp the green 

 tliiii;/s, and made such a constant yelling noise as 

 made the woods ring of them and ready to deafen 

 the hearers." {Morton's memorial.) This is an 

 amusing specimen of the slipslop way in which Na- 

 tural History was written by our grandfathers, and 

 of the influence of a mere name upon the imagina- 

 tiop. The insect being popularly called a "locust," 



Morton naturally inferred that it must act like the 

 "locusts" of which he had read in the Bible. 



But insects are not the only animals, among 

 which popular names have caused great confusion 

 in America. In some parts of the United States a 

 species of Grouse (Tetrao umbellus) is called a "part- 

 ridge,'' and in other parts the Quail (Ortyx virgini- 

 anus) is called a "partridge." And almost every- 

 where two entirely difi'erent mammals, the thirteen- 

 striped ground-squirrel (Spermophilus 13-lineatus) 

 and the Pouched Gopher (Geomys bursarius) are 

 confounded under the common name of "Gopher.'' 

 Nor are similar cases wanting in Europe. In many 

 English counties sheep of a particular age are call- 

 ed " Hoggets," and often for the sake of brevity 

 " Hogs;" and on one occasion a London gentleman 

 was recommended by a neighboring farmer to turn 

 thirty or forty "hogs" upon his lawn, in order to 

 improve the grass. As the Londoner understood 

 the word "hogs" to mean "swine," and adopted his 

 neighbor's advice to the best of his own under- 

 standing of it, the result may be readily guessed. 

 Quite recently, in a grave English work on Archi- 

 tecture, I met with a similar story, which the au- 

 thor vouches for as true. It seems that in the 

 Brewers' business molasses is extensively used in 

 England, and is technically known as " Spanish." 

 Sifted coal-ashes are also extensively used for grind- 

 ing up along with clay in the manufacture of bricks, 

 near London, and are likewise popularly known 

 among the brickmakers as " Spanish." On one 

 occasion a London brewer, being about to build a 

 large brick house in the country, sent a master 

 brickmaker down there to report on the quality of 

 the clay. The answer was that he could make first- 

 rate brick with it, if he only had a load or two of 

 " Spanish," meaning of course coal-ashes. Greatly 

 surprised at such a demand, but having much con- 

 fidence in the man, the Brewer forthwith sent oflF 

 to the Brickmaker two cart-loads of "Spanish" in 

 his own sense of the term, i. e. molasses. The re- 

 sult may be easily imagined. 



After these preliminary remarks, I will now give 

 such details as I have been able to collect respect- 

 ing these destructive " grasshoppers," which ought 

 by rights to be called " Locusts," but which, if de- 

 signated by that name in America, would make as 

 much confusion as the English sheep-grower's 

 "hogs" or the English brewer's "Spanish.'' It 

 should be understood, however, that some of the 

 insects which gather in great swarms in California 

 and Utah, sweeping everything green before them, 

 and are confounded with the true "grasshoppers" 

 under the same popular name, belong to a closely 

 allied family, the Catydids, {Gryllidx Leach, or 

 Locustarix Latreille,) and are mostly only furnish- 

 ed with very short rudiniental wings. To this fa- 

 mily cvidenlly appertains the insect rudely figured 

 in the ,<lii)i//isoiiiiiii Re],ort for 1800, (p. 424,) as 

 infesting the Shasta Valley in California, and it is 

 not improbably the Anabrus purpuratus of Uhler, 

 which Dr. Velie took abundantly in Colorado. The 

 " Catydids" may readily be distinguished from the 

 true " Grasshoppers," {Locuitadse, Leach, or Acri- 



