THE GRASSHOPPER AND OTHER ORTHOPTERA 13 



area. The swarms are sometimes so dense that the sun 

 is darkened and when they alight they eat up within a 

 short time almost every green plant within their reach. 

 Plagues of locusts in the old world have been frequently 

 recorded, some accounts of them being found in the Bible. 

 The most destructive of the grasshoppers of our country 

 is the celebrated Rocky Mountain locust which during 

 a series of years 1874-6 caused enormous damage in 

 Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and other western states. 

 Old inhabitants will never forget the grasshopper years. 

 The insects came down upon them in such vast swarms 



PIG. 9. The California katydid, Scudderia furcifera Scudd. Male, 

 natural size. (After Essig.) 



that in many places they ate up completely the crops of 

 corn and grain, destroyed the pastures, stripped many 

 shrubs of their foliage and devoured the weeds, even down 

 to such unsavory ones as smart weed and dog-fennel. 

 Stock thus deprived of their food perished in large numbers 

 and the inhabitants underwent great hardships on account 

 of their losses. Professor Packard estimates that the 

 losses due to grasshoppers during four years amounted to 

 $200,000,000. Very few of our common grasshoppers 

 are so destructive as the Rocky Mountain locust although 

 several species do considerable damage. One of the most 



