GROUSE LOCUSTS. 



129 



pounds. Its flesh is rich and delicate, and it is highly 

 valued as a food fish. Mr. B., though seventy-four 

 years of age, has killed with a rifle sixty-seven squir- 

 rels this past winter. Last year he killed one hundred 

 and four, and the year before more than two hun- 

 dred. All were gray squirrels a third smaller than 

 the same species in the north. 



In the damp cleared area near the border of a ham- 

 mock I found three species of "grouse locusts," be- 

 longing to as many genera. They are 

 the smallest of our Acrididae, being, 

 when full grown, less than a half inch 

 in length. The thorax is prolonged 

 as a hard crust, covering the wings 



Fig. 40-A 

 Grouse Locust^ 



TettigidcE lateralit 



and body. They pass the winter, as 

 mature insects, beneath logs and rub- 

 bish and are to be seen leaping ac- 

 tively about on any warm sunny day, 

 even in mid-winter. One of those 

 taken to-day, Paratettix rugosus Scudd., 

 is a strong and active flyer. 



With these little acridians I also found a number 

 of those small, sand burrowing crickets, Ellipes min- 

 uta Scudd. They likewise are the smallest of the 

 crickets found in North America, as when full grown 

 they are but one-fifth of an inch in length. The fore 

 tibiae are much enlarged, as is the case with all bur- 

 rowers which possess limbs. They live in little pits 

 in the sand, from which thev venture forth a short 



