﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 18X 



with modern cookery they can improve on the Digger Indians in 

 making a locust dish that shall be attractive and palatable even to 

 those not predisposed from sharpened appetites, to judge favorably; 

 and in any event it would pay under such circumstances to roast and 

 preserve them as food for poultry and hogs. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



Kegarding the popular name of our insect there is great lack of 

 uniformity in the terms by which it is designated, and many of the 

 readers of this Keport who have been accustomed to hearing these in- 

 sects very generally called " grasshoppers," will doubtless wonder why 

 I have not followed common usage. The term " Grasshopper " is very 

 generally employed for these insects in America, but should be aban- 

 doned for that of " Locust," which is applied to similar species in all 

 other parts of the world, the " locusts " of Scripture being very closely 

 allied species. As I have already said, (6th Rep. p. 153, note) : 



It. is to be regretted that American entomolgical writers do not more strictly fol- 

 low Harris in conforming to the English custom of callinjf these insects — ^with short 

 antennas and stridulating by means of the stout hind leg^ — by the popular term of 

 "locusts," which is in the keepinor with ancient usage. The term "grasshopper" 

 would then be confined to the lonof-horned and long-lego:ed, green g-roup, stridulatJng 

 solely with the wings, in which the species are more solitary and never congregate in 

 swarms, and in vvhich the female is Invariably provided with a sword orcimiter-shaped 

 ovipositor ; while the term Katydid could be used to desiernate the few larger, tree-in- 

 habiting species of the group, so designated by Harris. Where the habit of calling the 

 Cicada "Locust." and the "Locust" of ancient usage "Grasshopper," is as inveter- 

 ate as in this countrv, it is not easy to change it ; but it seems to me that the change is 

 desirable, and if popular authors would only continue the example of Harris, the 

 change would come about with thegreater dissemination of entomological information. 



Almost every entomological author has been under the necessity,, 

 at one time or another, of insisting that the " Grasshopper" of this 

 [Fig 4;i ] country is the " Locust " of Europe and of antiquity ; or of 

 endeavoring to clear up the confusion which results from 

 the popular application of this last term to the Periodical 

 Cicada or Harvest-fly — an insect (Fig. 40) which dwells, in 

 its early life, under ground, and feeds by sucking the sap 

 of trees, and which is no more capable, like the true locust^, 

 of devastating our grain-fields than a calf is of killing and 

 devouring our sheep. Yet the ceaseless preaching about 

 the popular misapplication of these terms in America will- 

 avail nothing so long as the popular error is encouraged 

 Cicada, or by the proachers themselves adopting the misapplication. 



miscalled lo- , ., , , i i i i. j 



<-ust: with one The popular names of a country should be respected as^ 



wiug removed , i • u 



soastoshowthe jj^^^ch as possible, especially for objects peculiar to the- 

 *'"'''*''■■ country, and I would be the last to try and change them 



