Examples of Pupils' Work 157 



their wings are so gay that when they fly they look much 

 like butterflies. 



The grasshopper is a musical insect. He hhas anoter 

 name, the murmurer; this is because of the noise or song 

 he makes. He sings to the female grasshopper in loud, 

 shrill tones. It is made by rubbing his wings one upon 

 the other. He has a little skin, like a tight drumhead, 

 set in each wing. As he moves his wings, this tiny drum 

 vibrates, or trembles, and makes the shrill sound. This 

 is called stridulation. 



The female grasshopper does not have this drum in her 

 wings. She has, however, at the end of her body, a nice 

 little swcrd, called ovipositor. She is called the jumper 

 with the sword. This little sword opens into several blades. 

 She uses it to place her eggs snugly into the ground. The 

 sword blade opens and the eggs slide safely clown between 

 them, into the little earth-bed. There they lie until the 

 young grasshoppers hatch out. 



The grasshopper generally dies near where it was born. 

 Frost and cold kill it. It does not outlive the winter, like 

 bees and butterflies. 



Grasshoppers feed chiefly on grasses of different kinds, 

 including most of the cultivated grains. They feed on 

 almost any green part of plants. Some are gregarious and 

 may be very destructive. They sometimes appear in 

 great numbers, and when they do they damage the grass 

 and young crops. But they do not usually go in swarms 

 as locusts do, who arc their near relatives. 



There is a grasshopper called the Rocky Mountain 

 grasshopper, because the old grasshoppers go to the moun- 

 tains to lay their eggs. The little ones live in the mountains 

 until their wings are strong, and then all the grasshoppers 

 leave the mountains together, flying and jumping along in 

 such numbers that they terrify the farmers in the plain 

 below, for they eat up every green thing in their way, 

 fields of corn and wheat, and grass. 



Insects comprise the six-footed Arthropods, nearly one- 

 half of the animal kingdom, there being about two hundred 

 thousand species. 



The Class Insecta are distinguished by having a body 

 in three parts, head, thorax, and abdomen distinct. Three 



