626 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



sexnai union, the female (the males being distinguished from the other sex 

 by their smaller size and blunt rounded hind bodies) proceeds to deposit her 

 eggs. Selecting a suitable place, she forces her hind body or abdomen 

 nearly orquite vertically downward into the earth for about an inch. Dur- 

 ing the process she opens and shuts the solid horny appendage (Fig. 1), 

 forming four stout hooks, by means of which the soil is displaced, while a 

 small bore is formed by the'movementsof the abdomen, which now elon- 

 gates nearly double its original length, until the hole is an inch or more in 

 depth. "Xow, with hind legs hoisted straight above the back, and the 

 shanks huggingmore or less closely the thighs, she commences ovipositing, 

 the eggs being voided in a pale glistening and glutinouslluid, which holds 

 them together, and biuds them into a long cylindrical pod, covered with 

 particles of earth, which adhere to it. When fresh, the whole mass is soft 

 and moist, but it soon acquires a firm consistency. It is often as long 

 as the abdomen, and usually lies in a curved or slanting position." The 

 figure from Dr. Riley's report, (Plate LXII, Fig. 1,) from whose account 

 we have quoted, will give a good idea of the act of egg-laying or oviposi- 

 tion. Riley says that" the eggs which compose this mass are laid side 

 by side to the number of from 30 to 100, according to size of mass." 



Mr. Whitman, under date of February 18, 1877, further writes me re- 

 garding the breeding-habits of the locust in JNIinnesota: 



In repjard to this year, in addition to what I have -written in my report, I found, 

 September 7, a large number of females with from one to fifteen eggs in the abdomen, 

 evidently ready to be deposited. Almost every female contained eggs. A few were 

 found evidently totally exhausted of ova (or ovaries). All these had flown in from 

 somewhere to the west late in August. So far .as I have seen heretofore, the female, in 

 July, before laying, lias the abdomen largely distended with eggs. The female locust 

 that I experimented upon was in such condition; then her abdomen decreased in size 

 after laying; then increased again. But the females that I found in September, al- 

 though having eggs in them, were not distended at all ; in fact, there were some notice- 

 able differences in appearance between those that flew away from us last July and 

 those that flew in later in the season ; and one difference was in the size of the body 

 (or abdomen), and possibly this was what made the farmers say that tho incomers 

 were "smaller and not Tully grown." I might go on to write considerably more in 

 regard to the ovarian differences in appearance, but I don't know that it is worth 

 while. I think I can snm it all up by saying that the locust which hatched iu this 

 State last spring could be very easily mistaken for the red-legged locust (as it appears 

 about Saint Paul), while the new-comers were strikingly different in shape and some- 

 what in color. By the way, I have never been able to find any such thing as a red- 

 legged locust down in the country where spreiua was abundant. I have found a speci- 

 men or two o{ spretus in Saint Paul. 



As for copulation, I think it takes place several times before laying. I judge so from 

 what I have seen myself and what others have told me. I have been also told that the 

 same female may receive two or more males. I had some two-striped locusts caged, 

 and thought I could observe selection between males and females. I found in a large 

 two-striped locust (in August) sixty-five eggs. 



Regarding the breeding-habits of the locust while in confinement, I 

 quote as follows from Mr. Whitman's report for 187G : 



On the 25th of June I shut up iu wire-gauze cages nine pupae of the Rocky Mountain 

 locust. The bottoms of the cages were filled with earth packed liard, and the insects 

 appeared to thrive in confinement. By the 2d of July they had all become perfect in- 

 sects. By the 8th of July they commenced coupling, and were seen repeating the act 

 for several days. On the 15th and 16th, two of the females went through the form of 

 depositing eggs, aud I marked the place of deposit on the edge of the cage. The coup- 

 ling was repeated again as before, until the iid of August. At that date the coupling 

 ended, and the locusts became almost inactive, and were seen to eat very rarely after- 

 ward.* 



* The early part of this coupling-season was one of the greatest activity on the part 

 of these insects. They dashed themselves against the wire of their cages as though 

 all space would be too small to contain them. There would be a flash of the wings, 

 extended and closed again in an instant, or that moverrient of the hind-legs known as 

 "fiddling," which seemed to be a well-known signal between the male and female. In 

 cages where several pairs were confined together, the mole, while in the act of coup- 

 ling, would repeat this movement if brushed agains j by another. 



