INSECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 113 



of cut-worms they have several insect enemies, which 

 attack them both above and below the surface. There 

 are four-winged flies, belonging to the genus Microgaster 

 which deposit their eggs in the body of the worms; and 

 a large yellowish brown, four-winged Ichneumon fly, 

 Paniscus geminatus, does the same. Among the insects 

 that devour cut-worms for food, js the useful spined 

 soldier-bug, and the larva and complete insect of the 

 fiery ground-beetle, Calosoma calidum. 



GRASSHOPPERS. 



The insects commonly called grasshoppers, belong to 

 two families of Orthoptera. The first and comparatively 

 harmless (Locuxtidto) are mostly nocturnal insects, gen- 

 erally green in color, with their legs four-jointed. They 

 have long, tapering feelers, and are provided with a long 

 projecting instrument at the end of the body for deposit- 

 ing their eggs (ovipositor). 



The other family (Acridida), embraces the more de- 

 structive " hateful grasshopper," or Kocky Mountain 

 locust, the locusts of the Bible (Locusta migratoria), 

 and the numerous varieties, which are so destructive to 

 our turnips and cabbage seedlings in autumn. (The 

 insects, commonly called locusts in this country, be- 

 long to the Cicada family, and are harmless to the crops 

 of the truck-farmer.) These are more varied in color than 

 the foregoing, have shorter feelers, three- join ted legs, 

 and no long egg-laying instrument. The female insect 

 lays a large number of eggs in the soil, late in the fall, 

 which hatch out in the spring. The larvae are wingless, 

 but otherwise bear a great resemblance to the imago and 

 perfect their growth during the summer. To plants in 

 seed-leaf they are very destructive; but those more ad- 

 vanced may outgrow their inroads. To plants so young, 

 as only to have one or two seed-leaves, or still in the seed- 

 bed, there can be no reasonable objections to the applica- 



