432 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Order III. ORTHOPTERA.(GY. "Opflof, straight; KTepov, a wing.) 

 Family . . . Locustidaj. (Lat. Locusta, a Locust.) 



Tartarica (Lat. of Tartary), the Locust. 



These pests of the warmer countries of the earth belong to 

 the order called Orthoptera, because the wings are not folded 

 transversely. 



They fly in countless myriads, and where they descend, 

 they devour every particle of green herbage the trees are strip- 

 ped of their leaves, the grass and corn is eaten to the very 

 ground ; for their jaws are so strong as to inflict a severe 

 wound when the insect is incautiously handled. Nor does the 

 mischief end with their life, for their -dead bodies often accumu- 

 late in such numbers that the air is even dangerously infected. 

 They infest Africa and central Asia, but they annually make 

 incursions to Europe, where the damage they occasion is much 

 less reparable than in their native lands, for there the power of 

 vegetation is so great that a few days repair the injuries caused 

 by them, but in Europe a whole year is required for that pur- 

 pose. The following account of these creatures is extracted 

 from Mr. Curnming's South Africa : 



