28 GRASSHOPPERS IN GENERAL. 



HABITS. 



Food. What this insect will eat depends entirely upon its neces- 

 sities. It is a lover of good food, and knows how to find it when pro- 

 curable. For instance, it will eat the peaches before attacking the 

 tree ; it eats the shooting ear and tassel before touching the harden- 

 ing blade. A list of food-plants as personally observed are : Trees 

 cottonwood, mulberry, cherry, apple, peach, apricot, plum; herbs 

 alfalfa, Kafir-corn, corn ; all cereals ; all garden vegetables, including 

 melons ; sunflowers, lamb's-quarters, hogweed, Russian thistle. Han- 

 dles of hay-forks left in the field were frequently roughened by the 

 nibbling of these locusts. Farmers in Edwards and Hamilton coun- 

 ties mentioned the fact that gloves left about the mowing-machines 

 were cut by the insect. Binding- twine has been cut by them so much 

 that a twine prepared by recipe not in accord with their tastes is now 

 much used. In confinement these locusts will feast upon one another. 



Actions. Before sunrise nymphs and adults begin to climb to 

 the top of weeds, growing crops, fence-posts, or any object standing 

 above ground, and remain there until about ten o'clock If the ob- 

 ject upon which they rest is edible, they amuse themselves nibbling 

 away. I have frequently seen a portion of an alfalfa field fairly glisten 

 with the bodies of these insects resting on the tops of the plants. 

 About ten o'clock they descend and feed lower down, but ascend 

 about three P. M. again. If the day is cloudy and cool the insects are 

 sluggish, and remain the whole day upon the ground ; so true is this 

 that we had to abandon work with the "hopper-dozer" upon one cool, 

 cloudy day. If the day be cloudy and sultry, they eat much the same 

 as upon bright, warm days. 



This habit, I believe, accounts in some instances for the belief 

 among farmers that this locust comes in flights. One day the blades 

 of corn will be laden ed down with grasshoppers; the next day not a 

 locust will be in sight as the farmer passes by to his work. They 

 are upon the ground. Several instances of this kind were brought to 

 my notice, where the farmers had reported 'hoppers having left their 

 corn, or reappeared, when the conditions were caused by this move- 

 ment. Grasshoppers sitting upon the ground, especially when par- 

 tially obscured by weeds, do not appear so numerous or so formidable 

 as when arrayed against a growing crop. 



Why the borders of the field are stripped. Damage to alfalfa is 

 most apparent around the edges. This has led to the belief that the 

 insects enter the alfalfa from outside territory. I observed the same 

 conditions around long ricks of alfalfa, along division fences, where 

 the alfalfa joined cane sown broadcast, and around large breaks in the 

 "stand" of alfalfa. 



