Hear-IIoi'ses vs. Grasshoppers. 



209 



[Fig. 127.] 



I 



t'oloi's— (a) grt 



EEAE-HOKSES vs. 



General Engelmann, of St. Clair 

 county, Southern Illinois, has found 

 by experience; that the best Avay to 

 [Fig. 128.] get rid of the grass- 

 hoppers in a vine- 

 yard is to raise Eear- 

 horses there, which 

 M F^^H'll ^^^ ^^^ known as 



W ^^^flJ I^evil's-horses, alias, 



Praying Nuns, alias 

 Intelligence Bugs, 

 alias- Devil's Riding 

 horses, but the cor- 

 rect English name of 

 which is " Camel - 

 cricket." Figure 127 

 gives a very good 

 view of the sexes of 

 this insect, h repre- 

 senting the male and 

 a the female. The 

 female has such short 

 wings that she is in- 

 capable of flight; but 

 the male flies as read- 



?ii; (6) brown. 



GRASSHOPPERS. 



ily and as strongly as an ordinary 

 grasshopper. The General's mode 

 of colonizing this insect in his vine- 

 yard is, to collect the masses of eggs 

 in the dead of the year and j^lace 

 them upon grapevines. Figure 128 

 will enable the reader to recognize 

 these singular egg-masses whenever 

 he may happen to meet with them. 

 Persons are very generally ignorant 

 of their real nature, and on the i)rinci- 

 ple that " Everything that is unknown 

 must be something hateful and de- 

 structive," are apt to cut them oif and 

 throw them into the fire. They should 

 under no circumstances be destroyed. 

 As a general rule Camel-crickets are 

 only found in the central and south- 

 ern parts of Missouri, in the southern 

 part of Illinois, and in other southerly 

 regions. But Mr. i). B. Wieris domes- 

 ticating them at Lacon on the Illinois 

 river, and on one occasion one of their 

 egg-masses was found as far north as 

 Loe count}^, northern Illinois. We are 

 inclined to believe that, with a little 

 care and attention they may be accli- 

 mated at points farther north than 

 these. — Amer. Entomologist for May. 



