IN NATURE-STUDY 



of the head. These eyes are compound eyes; that is, they are made of a 

 large number of simple eyes. Thrust your finger at the cricket without 

 touching the antennae. Does he seem to see well ? 



Movements. Watch the cricket as he walks. How does he move his 

 legs? Do the legs always move in the same order*? Look carefully at 

 the cricket's foot and notice of what parts it is made. Draw the foot. How 

 do the hind legs differ from the other legs. How far can a cricket jump ? 

 See how many times its own length a grasshopper can jump. How far 

 could a boy jump if he could leap as far in proportion to his length ? Study 

 the hind leg of the grasshopper to see if you can discover what appliances 

 and arrangement of parts there are that enable him to jump so well. What 

 advantage is it to a cricket or grasshopper to be able to jump ? When you 

 pick up a grasshopper by its hind leg what often happens ? Would this be 

 of any value to the insect ? 



Cricket music. The cricket is perhaps better known by his music than 

 by his appearance. Undoubtedly the crickets will sing while they are con- 

 fined in their cages. Observe how this is accomplished. Do both male and 

 female crickets chirp ? Can you think what possible end the chirp serves ? 

 How can you tell the male and female apart ? See the ear, an oval disk, on 

 the first leg of the animal. 



Breathing. Observe a cricket or grasshopper carefully and see that the 

 abdomen is made up of a number of rings, each telescoped into the one 

 ahead of it. These rings are held together by delicate membranes which 

 cannot ordinarily be seen but which are evident when the abdomen of the 

 locust is extended in the egg-laying process. Watch the abdomen carefully 

 and observe that it is constantly expanding and contracting, bellows-like. 

 In fact, this is the way in which air is drawn into the body. These insects 

 do not breathe through their mouths; they do not have any noses, but the 

 air is taken in through several little pores that can readily be found on a 

 grasshopper's abdomen, one on each side of nearly every ring. Draw the 

 abdomen to show these. 



Egg-laying. Watch beside the sidewalks for a grasshopper laying its 

 eggs. In the autumn you will find the female with the abdomen thrust 

 deep into the ground, the insect looking as if the abdomen had been cut off. 

 Make a sketch of the position assumed by the insect, then 'lift the animal 

 up so as to pull the abdomen out of the ground. Note how long the abdo- 

 men is. Dig up the soil at this spot and see if you can find the cluster of 

 eggs. Normally they remain in the ground until the following spring, when 

 they hatch into young locusts, or grasshoppers, as we commonly call them. 



Plagues of locusts have been among the notorious insect phenomena 

 in the history of the world. The western states have many times suffered 



