90 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



somewhat, but wet weather is bad for grasshoppers for 

 then diseases multiply and other difficulties arise. A few 

 grasshoppers pass the winter as adults, or half-grown 

 nymphs. The red-legged locust, however, gives up the 

 struggle in the autumn, but before dying lays a mass of 

 eggs which hatch in the following spring. This brings 

 us to the last aspect of the grasshopper's life race 

 preservation. 



Race Preservation. Grasshoppers are of separate sexes, 

 males and females. A female is readily distinguished ex- 

 ternally by the ovipositor, or " egg-layer," at the tip of the 

 abdomen. This is composed of two short curved horny 

 plates, which cover the opening for the genital organs. 

 The internal reproductive organs in a female grasshopper's 

 abdomen consist of a series of long tubes modified in dif- 

 ferent regions to form a pair of ovaries, oviducts, shell 

 glands, and a seminal receptacle. The ovaries are glands 

 which give off living egg cells. Each consists of a number 

 of little tubes which connect with the oviduct. A male has 

 in his abdomen a pair of testes which produce sperm cells, 

 and two long twisted vasa deferentia, or sperm ducts. 

 Extending at the posterior end are a pair of cerci for 

 introducing sperm into the female. 



If red-legged locusts are to eat grass year after year there 

 must be a continual series of new generations. These are 

 produced in only one way from eggs. A female grass- 

 hopper can grow eggs by herself and even lay them in some 

 cases, but the eggs will not hatch out young grasshoppers 

 unless they have been fertilized. " Fertilization " consists 

 primarily in the union of a sperm cell nucleus with that in 

 an egg cell. In order to insure fertilization the two sexes 

 must be brought together. 



The coming together of the male and female grasshopper 

 is not altogether a matter of accident. The male takes the 

 initiative. If you sit quietly by a dusty road on a summer 

 day, you cannot fail to observe the Carolina locusts. The 

 males at intervals rise from the ground, flap their wings 



