158 Education through Nature 



pairs of jointed legs. One pair of antennas and generally 

 two pairs of wings. The order to which the grasshopper 

 belongs is Grthoptera. 



The name grasshopper is applied to several families 

 closely related grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, cock- 

 roaches, etc. Their body is usually flattened, pro thorax 

 large and squarish, mouth parts adapted for biting. Meta- 

 morphosis often incomplete; pupa often active; larva 

 flattened, often resembling the adult. This order is called 

 the straight wings because the insects belonging to it do 

 not fold their wings crosswise. There are six families of 

 the straight wings, but the grasshopper, locust, and cricket 

 interest us most. 



A locust is not a grasshopper, but much like a grass- 

 hopper. It is his nearest relative. We do not like locusts 

 because they do great harm. They are generally larger than 

 grasshoppers and much more greedy. They destroy all 

 plants that come in their way, even to the bark of trees. 

 Locusts live in swarms. Instead of dying and living 

 where they were born, they are given to travel. They 

 generally live in hot lands, as Asia and Africa. In FAirope 

 and the eastern part of the United States they are not 

 common, but in the Western States they have done much 

 harm. 



His feelers are shorter than those of the grasshopper. 

 The female locust has no sword for placing her eggs; 

 she lays them in the earth in long tubes. Many boys 

 make a living by digging them from the earth and selling 

 them to be destroyed. 



People try many ways of killing locusts. Sometimes deep 

 trenches are cut and filled with water so that young un- 

 winged locusts, as they run along the ground, will fall in 

 and be drowned. They are in such numbers that the 

 drowned ones soon fill the trenches. The others run 

 safely over the dead bodies. Sometimes great fires are lit 

 across their path. Then the hordes of locusts crowd on, 

 and at last the fires are put out by the burned bodies. 

 After that the others pass on unhurt. 



One great trouble about locusts is, that when a full- 

 grown swarm passes through a place the ground is left 

 full of eggs. The next year these hatch and the larvje and 



