LOCUSTS. 



289 



The field-cricket, like the grasshopper, is accustomed to fill 

 up pauses in his music by licking, ever and anon, his feet and 

 whiskers with his rounded tongue, which, together with his jaws, 

 is of course employed also, at other intervals, upon something 

 of more edible description, in the way of breakfast, dinner, or 

 supper. 



The family of Locustida (locusts), though, as before noticed, 

 often confounded with that of Gryllidce (grasshoppers), are 

 distinguishable from them by the inferior length of their 

 antennae, which are generally shorter by half than the body ; 

 also, by the absence in the female insect of the sword-shaped 

 instrument employed, where given, to inter eggs within the 

 ground. 1 



That prince of insect destroyers, the migratory locust, has 

 appeared occasionally in Great Britain and in the environs of 

 Paris, as well as in Southern Europe. 



1 See Vignette. 



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