142 Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 



tips. The tegmina are opaque and reddish at base, subtransparent dis- 

 tally; the great hind wings are clear and transparent. This locust is com- 

 mon in the South, where it sometimes assumes a migratory habit and 

 becomes very injurious to crops. The leather-colored locust, S. alutaceum, 

 with dirty brownish-yellow body and paler stripe on top of head and thorax, 



FIG. 179. The coral-winged locust, Hippiscus tuberculatus, female. (After Lugger; 

 natural size indicated by line.) 



semi-transparent tegmina, and clear transparent hind wings, and the rusty 

 locust, S. rubiginosum, with light dust-red body and opaque tegmina, are 

 the common eastern representatives of this genus. Both are large and 

 striking forms. 



The subfamily Tryxalinae includes a number of locusts distinguished 

 by the sharp oblique sloping of the face, and in some cases by the much 

 prolonged and pointed vertex (region of the head between the eyes). In 



the East the short- winged locust, 

 Stenobothrus curtipennis (Fig. 174), 

 recognizable by its short narrow 

 wings, yellow under-body, and prom- 

 inent yellowish hind legs with black 

 knees, is a common example of this 

 group. It likes to hide among tall 

 grasses, where its sprightly tumbling 

 FIG. 1 80. Young coral-winged locust, and dodging usually save it from 

 Hippiscus tuberculatus. (After Lugger; ca pture despite its poor flying and 

 natural size indicated by line.) 



leaping powers. I he sprinkled 



locust, Chloealtis conspersa (Fig. 175), is an abundant species through- 

 out the East. It is light reddish brown sprinkled with black spots, 

 and has pale yellowish-brown tegmina with many small dark-brown spots, 

 the wings being clear; it is about three-fourths of an inch long. The 

 males have the sides of the pronotum shining black. This locust lays its 

 eggs in rotten stumps or other slightly decayed wood. Blatchley discovered 

 a female in the act of boring a hole for her eggs in the upper edge of the 

 topmost board of a six-rail fence. One of the most grotesque of all the 

 locusts is a member of this subfamily named Achurum brevipenne. The 

 body is very long and thin, measuring an inch and a half in length by one- 



