INSECTS OF THE FIELD. 75 



Next we must learn something of its mode of increasing its 

 life-history. Grasshoppers are male and female and the latter 

 lays the eggs. Sometimes she does this in soft wood but 

 generally in the ground, in the fall of the year, after the damage 

 to crops has been done. The female makes a hole in the 

 ground, in which she lays a number of tiny eggs. These are 

 covered with a sticky substance which causes them to hang 

 together like a pod. The nest or hole is then covered over 

 and there they remain unseen through the winter. In the 

 warm spring they hatch out and thousands and millions of 

 young grasshoppers appear. Their appearance in large numbers 

 is thus explained. They have no wings, but they can spring 

 about, and they have vigorous appetites. Later on their wings 

 appear, and now they are able to fly. They have done much 

 damage where they were hatched and now they can fly away 

 long distances, eating up and cutting down grass and hay and 

 grain. Later on the females deposit their eggs, to be hatched 

 out the next year. And so they continue year by year. Some- 

 times severe weather destroys their eggs or the young insects. 

 Other insects may eat them up. Tiny forms of life (parasites) 

 prey upon them. Diseases of various kinds destroy them. 

 Knowing their mode of life, their life-history, the farmer can 

 check them. For instance, when a field becomes infested with 

 them, it can be ploughed up in the fall and their nests of eggs 

 destroyed. A change or a rotation of crops is advisable. 



Insects are arranged in orders. The principal basis of this 

 classification is the form or structure of the wings. The grass- 

 hoppers are " straight-winged." Crickets and cockroaches 

 belong to the same order. Entomology is the science of 

 insects, as Botany is the science of plants. The Entomologist 

 sometimes uses the word orthoptera when stating the order 

 to which grasshoppers belong. 



MOTHS AND CUTWORMS. In gardens and fields we often 

 find the plants bc-ing cut off, but can see no insect or other 



