NATURAL ENEMIES. 191 



like brown or blackish worms {Filaria), resembling in ap- 

 pearance those called horse-hair eels (Grordius). I have 

 taken three or four of these animals out of the body of a 

 single locust. They are also much infested by little red 

 mites, belonging apparently to the genus Ocypete ; these so 

 much weaken the insects, by sucking the juices from their 

 bodies, as to hasten their death. Ten or a dozen of these 

 mites will frequently be found pertinaciously adhering to the 

 body of a locust, beneath its wing-covers and wings . A kind 

 of sand-wasp preys upon grasshoppers, and provisions her 

 nest with them. Many birds devour them, particularly our 

 domestic fowls, which eat great numbers of grasshoppers, lo- 

 custs, and even crickets. Young turkeys, if allowed to go at 

 large during the summer, derive nearly the whole of their 

 subsistence from these insects. 



