PATTERSON] SOME INSECT STUDIES 111 



A brief study brought out the striking resemblance of the insects, 

 to the squash bugs. They had the same general shape of the body, 

 the same kind of mouth, and wings, and the same life history 

 series. The term, Hemiptera, the order to which these two insects 

 belong, was given to the class. 



We now took up the study of grasshoppers. Definite problems 

 concerning habits, locomotion, and feeding were given for the 

 students to solve in the field. 



The reports of this work were most gratifying. The combination 

 flight and jump, the habit of dropping to the ground and hiding 

 among the grass stems, the special adaption of the hind legs for 

 jumping, the folding of the inner wings were all discovered by 

 the pupils without aid from the teacher. 



The reports on the mouth were most interesting. The students 

 were told, if they did not mind handling the insects, to hold a 

 grasshopper in the left hand and with the right to place a blade 

 of grass near the mouth and as the insect fed to try to discover the 

 different parts of the mouth and their uses. All the parts except 

 the maxillae were identified with the uses of the palps and the 

 sidewise movement of the jaws. As the mouth was discussed in 

 class the students had their insects in the bottle before them 

 so the parts were observed again and the names labrum, labi- 

 um, mandibles, and palps were learned. 



The students had brought in several species of grasshoppers, all 

 of which belonged to the family Acrididae or short horned. They 

 now searched for relatives of these grasshoppers. We soon had 

 several meadow grasshoppers, katydids, tree crickets and black 

 crickets. One of the large terrariums was arranged with sod in one 

 end for the short horned species, another with bottles to hold twigs 

 and plants for the meadow grasshoppers and katydids. 



The musical instruments of these insects proved very interesting. 

 Perhaps the rnost enjoyable bit of observation was watching a 

 common black cricket make its music. One of these little creatures 

 confined in a bottle was accommodating enough to start chirping 

 during a recitation period and every student had the opportunity 

 to see how he did it. 



Grasshopper eggs were obtained by placing the female insects in 

 jars half full of garden soil. For the crickets, we used a lantern 

 globe set in a flower pot filled with soil. 



