The Short-Horned Grasshoppers or True Locusts 



With the short-horned grasshoppers we come to the first of 

 the Orthoptera which are musical. Almost everyone who walks 

 in the fields knows the rattling or crackling sound produced by 

 certain grasshoppers in their flight. It appears to be under the 

 control of the insect. It can produce it or not, just as it pleases. 

 Some give distinct snapping sounds, or separate, loud snaps. 

 Still other grasshoppers play upon their instruments not during 

 flight but while at rest. Professor A. P. Morse tells how he 



Fig. 223. Melanoplus spretus: laying its eggs. (After Riley.) 



watched some of them (Circotettix -verruculatus ) on Mt. 

 Washington sunning themselves, occasionally elevating the 

 hinder part of the body and rapidly moving the hind thighs up 

 and down against the wing covers, "producing a distinct 

 ' scotching' sound clearly audible at a distance of three or four 

 feet. This act was repeated several times at intervals of a few 

 seconds." 



Life History of a Grasshopper 



(Melanoplus atlanis Riley .) 



This insect, which is known as the lesser migratory locust, 

 is a close relative of the common red-legged locust and the 

 western grasshopper. It occurs commonly throughout the 

 northern United States and has for many years made occasional 

 injurious outbreaks in a restricted region in New Hampshire 

 where local conditions seem to favor its undue increase. The 



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