ORTHOPTERA 



51 



Locusts are mentioned in the the book of Exodus 

 as the eighth plague of Egypt and at various other places 

 in the Bible and in secular literature. The forms that 

 attract the most notice are the migratory ones. One mi- 

 gratory species in the United States has done enormous 

 damage in times past and is still occasionally injurious, 

 and other species have the migratory habit to a degree. 

 The chief one is the Rocky Mountain Locust. In its flights 

 it spread from the Rocky Mountain region 

 eastward almost entirely covering the plains 

 regions to the Mississippi. It also invaded 

 the agricultural sections of Idaho, Utah and 

 Nevada. Non-migratory species are injur- 

 ious every year, but their damage is not 

 so universal as was that of the migratory 

 kind. They are successfully combated by 

 the use of poisoned bran-mash where they 

 occur in great numbers. Grasshopper eggs 

 are laid in masses in the soil and the winter 

 is usually passed by this stage. Some hatch 

 in the fall and pass the winter as young 

 nymphs which may be seen hopping about on warm 

 days in winter and in early spring. Common species are 

 the American Acridium, the Carolina locust, and the Dif- 

 ferential locust or Alfalfa grasshopper.* 



39. Locustidae. This family is rather unfortunately 

 named, as it includes the katydids and long-horned grass- 

 hoppers, not the locusts. Its members are grasshopper- 

 like in form but are in general more delicate and have 

 antennae longer than the body. Some kinds are wingless, 

 but ordinarily the wings are longer than is usually the 



* See page 241, Part II, for detailed descriptions of injurious 

 species. 



FIG. 32. A 



"Grouse-locust' 



(AcrididoB). 



