INSECTS. 183 



small body, and a most insatiate appetite. They at once be^in to eat. 

 and with the taking of food they rapidly increase in size ; a fad which 

 necessitates frequent moltings of the skin, and with 

 each molt the proportions change, gradually approxi- 

 mating those of the adult, the wings appearing first 

 like small scales, until after the sixth molt, the per- 

 fect insect appears, ready to lay its eggs, and thus 

 begin the cycle anew. 



The western locust, which we have thus described 



T.i-.n o ,-, <■ ,, Fig- 169.— Young of the Rocky 



at length, is the type ot numerous other forms, all Mountain locust (Caiop 

 injurious ; but none ot which with us acquire the im- 

 portance of this species. In the Old World, however, allied forms have 

 at times devastated large tracts. The prophet Joel, eight hundred years 

 before Christ, describes their ravages and the way in which they fall upon 

 a country, a picture perfectly applicable to the locust of the west : "A day 

 of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as 

 the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; 

 there hath not been even the like, neither shall be any more after it. even 

 to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them: and 

 behind them a flame burnetii : the land is as the garden of Eden before 

 them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall 

 escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses ; and 

 as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of 

 mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of lire that devoureth 

 the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. . . . They shall run like 

 mighty men ; they shall climb the wall like men of war : and they shall 

 march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. . . . 

 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they 

 shall climb up upon the houses ; they shall enter in at the windows like a 

 thief. The earth shall quake before them ; the heavens shall tremble : the 

 sun and moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining," 



Southern Russia seems to furnish a permanent breeding-ground for the 

 European and Asiatic migratory locusts: but doubtless others exist, for 

 this species is said to range from Germany to northern Australia and New 

 Zealand, and from Algiers to the Fiji Islands. 



The number of species of locusts in the United States is about one hun- 

 dred and forty. In their habits they are all much alike, and the descrip- 

 tion of the species, or even the most prominent ones, would prove dry read- 

 ing. Some of our species attain a considerable size — three 

 more in length; but in tropical America gigantic forms with a spread oi 

 wings of eight or nine inches. Even these forms, which are among the 



