92 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 



that completely encloses them. Their eggs are laid in the au.'umn, 

 and usually are not hatched till the following spring. They are 

 nocturnal insects, or at least more active by night than by day. 

 When taken between the fingers, they emit from their mouths a 

 considerable quantity of dark-colored fluid, as do also the locusts or 

 diurnal grasshoppers. They devour the leaves of trees, and of other 

 plants, and lead a solitary life, or at least do not associate and mi- 

 grate from place to place in great swarms, like some of the crickets 

 and the locusts. 



LOCUSTS. The various insects included under the name of locusts 

 nearly all agree in having their wing-covers rather long and narrow, 

 and placed obliquely along the sides of the body, meeting, and even 

 overlapping for a short distance, at their upper edges, which to- 

 gether form a ridge on the back like a sloping roof. Their antennae 

 are much shorter than those of most grasshoppers, and do not 

 taper towards the end, but are nearly of equal thickness at both 

 extremities. Their feet have really only three joints ; but as the 

 under-side of the first joint is marked by one or two cross lines, 

 the feet, when seen only from below, seem to be four or five jointed. 



Although, the ravages of locusts in America are not followed by 

 such serious consequences as in the Eastern continent, yet they are 

 sufficiently formidable to have attracted attention, and not unfre- 

 quently have these insects laid waste considerable tracts, and oc- 

 casioned no little loss to the cultivator of the soil. Our salt-marshes, 

 which, are accounted among the most productive and valuable ot 

 our natural meadows, are frequented by great numbers of the small 

 red-legged species (Acrydiwn femur-rubrum), intermingled occa- 

 sionally with some larger kinds. These, in certain seasons, almost 

 entirely consume the grass of these marshes, from whence they 

 then take their course to the uplands, devouring, in their way, 

 grass, corn, and vegetables, till checked by the early frosts, or by 

 the close of the natural term of their existence. When a scanty 

 crop of hay has been gathered from the grounds which these puny 

 pests have ravaged, it becomes so tainted with the putrescent bodies 

 of the dead locusts contained in it, that it is rejected by horses and 

 cattle. In this country locusts are not distinguished from grass- 

 hoppers, and are generally, though incorrectly, comprehended un- 

 der the same name, or under that of flying grasshoppers. They 

 are, however, if we make allowance for their inferior size, quite as 

 voracious and injurious to vegetation during the young or larva and 

 pupa states, when they are not provided wrJi wings, as they are 



