Alfalfa in Kansas. 



375 



plow or other cultivating implements, undisked alfalfa fields thus con- 

 stituting an ideal breeding place. Roadsides, fence rows, waste places, 

 and edges of pastures also constitute ideal breeding places. The female 

 digs a hole in the ground with the tip of her abdomen, extending it as 

 far down as the abdomen will reach (Fig. 322) and deposits from fifty 



FIG. 322. Drawing representing the position assumed by the female differential 

 grasshopper in laying her eggs ; slightly enlarged. (After Milliken, Kan. Exp. Sta. ; 

 Emslie, Del.) 



to one hundred eggs, neatly arranged in a kidney-shaped pod or mass. 

 She then packs the earth in over them, and here they remain throughout 

 the winter. With the coming of warm spring weather they hatch and 

 the young come to the surface, where they feed on the alfalfa all summer 

 long. They reach full size the latter part of summer, mate, and lay the 

 eggs that are to produce the next year's brood. 



Methods of Control. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. Upward of one hundred species of birds are 

 known to feed on grasshoppers. Some of the most useful ones in this 

 respect are quails, prairie chickens, sparrow hawks, the shrike, all 

 cuckoos, the meadow lark, catbird, all blackbirds, and the cowbird. 

 Barnyard fowls, such as guineas, chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese, 

 are continually in search of grasshoppers. Skunks, toads, ground squir- 

 rels and snakes are very fond of them. 



Mites often infest grasshoppers, collecting in large numbers under 

 the base of the wings. Probably the mites do not kill many of the grass- 

 hoppers. However, they may so weaken the female as to prevent her 

 from developing her eggs. There are several species of parasitic flies 

 that frequently destroy very large numbers of the grasshoppers; in fact, 

 they sometimes destroy nearly all of them over large districts. These 

 parasitic flies deposit the small maggots on the surface of the bodies of 



