GRASSHOPPERS IN GENERAL. 25 



middle ridge of roads passing through the fields. In one place he saw, 

 011 a road ridge, in a space about twenty inches wide by three rods 

 long, one grasshopper per every two inches square of ground, oviposit- 

 ing. 



The first oviposition that I observed occurred September 10, and 

 after making a large number of dissections I feel reasonably certain 

 that few eggs were deposited before that time. Ovipositions were not 

 of general occurrence until September 20. and egg laying was contin- 

 ued until cold weather. 



Eggs placed in the ground at this late season of the year will not 

 receive heat sufficient to hatch, so that the species pass the rigorous 

 period of winter in the egg-pod. During the first warm month of 

 spring their eggs begin to hatch ; then come consumption of food and 

 growth of body. Growth means expansion. The insect is surrounded 

 from birth by a rigid skeleton. This, instead of enlarging, yields to 

 another ; that is, the outer skin is shed ; an under one, at first soft and 

 accommodating, makes allowance for the increase in size. This 

 skeleton soon becomes fixed and the insect's size soon requires a new 

 armament. This change, commonly called " shedding the skin," is 

 technically known as molting. Observations upon the number of 

 molts this insect undergoes are not yet completed. 



The most interesting molt is the last one, the one in which the 

 grasshopper brings out from the wings pads of the skin, which is 

 being cast off, fully developed wings. The best place for watching 

 this transformation was in standing corn, in fields adjacent to alfalfa 

 fields. Plate iv was made, under direction, from the author's sketches 

 and a large number of alcoholic specimens taken in every stage of the 

 transformation. 



The full-grown nymph ceases to eat and, with the head almost in- 

 variably downward and the antennae drooping, fastens the claws firmly 

 into the stalk or blade, remains quiet for a short period, during which 

 it can be handled without being disturbed ; a pulsating motion be- 

 gins in the center of the back of thorax ; this increases until the whole 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE III. Egg-pods of Melanoplus differentia Us taken 

 from a sandy soil, showing variations in shape, or, pod with top broken off; 6, 

 pods made of sand with larger grains of sand or stone adhering; c, small portion 

 of outside shell broken off; r7, specimens made of sand and dirt with stones or 

 small dead rootlets; d', specimens composed of sand and dirt, with clod of dirt 

 firmly fixed to the side: r, specimens broken off near the top; /, shows an un- 

 finished pod the grasshopper was disturbed while depositing eggs, and the pod 

 taken in this unfinished state; g and g', specimens taken showing two pods 

 firmly fixed to each other, composed of sand; g", four pods of sand and dirt 

 with small stick nnd dead rootlets adhering; Fr, cross-section of top of pod, 

 showing honeycomb structure made by the sebaceous fluid when dry. 



