46 



THE RED-IiEGGED LOCUST. 



(Melanoplus femur-rubrum De G. ). 



This is our commonest North American grasshopper, being found 

 practically everywhere. It is one of the smaller species (tig. 43), and 



where it is not held in subjection by 

 numerous natural enemies of various 

 kinds it may become a decided nuisance 

 in cultivated lands. It was destructive 

 to sugar beet in Illinois in 1899. It sel- 

 dom exhibits the migratory tendency, 

 but sometimes gathers in swarms and 

 moves in concert, not, however, rising to great heights, but drifting 

 with the wind as do the true migratory species. 



Fig. 43. — Melanoplusfemur-nibrum — nat 

 ural size (after Riley). 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST. 



{Melanoj)lus spretiis Thomas). 



This is the most destructive of all native grasshoppers, and has been 

 the cause of greater losses to agriculture in the past thirt}^ 3"ears or 

 more than perhaps all of the other known species of grasshoppers 

 combined. Its range of injuriousness is not limited to the Rockj'- 



Mountain region, but it 

 is more abundant there 

 than elsewhere. It is 

 illustrated in ligures 44 

 and 45. 



Those who were inter- 



FiG. ^.—Melanoplus spreUm: a, a, a, female in different posi- 

 tions, ovipositing; b, egg-pod extracted from ground, with 

 the end broken open; c, a few eggs lying loose on the 

 ground; d, c, show the earth partially removed, to illustrate 

 an egg-mass already in place and one being placed; /, shows 

 where such a mass has been covered up (after Riley). 



Fig. 45. — Melanoplus spretus: a, a, 

 newly hatched nymph; 6, full- 

 grown nymph; c, pupa, natural 

 size (after Riley). 



ested in farming in the TO's in Kansas, Nebraska, and some neighbor- 

 ing States have cause to remember the depredations of the Rocky 

 Mountain locust. During 1874-1877 it w^as directly responsible for 

 the loss of 1100,000,000, in addition to an indirect loss by the stoppage 

 of business and other enterprises which might have aggregated as 

 much more. It was for an investigation of this species that the 



