238 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



from the ground and hence are much smaller propor- 

 tionally than are those of the group of "hoppers" 

 which leap rather than fly, while their wings are 

 much longer and stronger. To this group of "flyers"' 

 belongs our largest and most handsome species, 

 the "American grasshopper," Schistocerca americana 

 (Drury). 



In the season of 1893 this species was unusually 

 common in Vigo County, from the fact that a large 

 number of adults were blown in by a high wind which 

 prevailed on the night of April 11. No mature speci- 

 mens had ever before been noted in that vicinity 



Fig. 63 American Grasshopper. 

 (Male. After Lugger.) 



earlier than the middle of June, but on the morning 

 after the storm mentioned hundreds were seen on the 

 streets of Terre Haute. They had come sailing in on 

 the wings of the wind from some distant point in the 

 south-west where they had passed the winter in the 

 mature state or as an advanced form of the young. 



In Indiana there are two species which far outrank 

 all others in numbers and in the injury which they do 

 to grass and growing vegetation in general. The 

 larger of these is the "lubberly grasshopper," Melano- 

 plus differentmlis (Uhler), a clumsy, thick-set fellow, 

 which is found by thousands along fence rows and 



