PACKARD.] THE EASTERN RED-LEGGED LOCUST. 685 



spersa, it would appear that the eggs are probably laid singly, and 

 that the glutinous substance which afterward becomes spongy and hard 

 is exuded before and during the extension of the eggs, which are each 

 arranged with more or less care so as to pack most closely, forming a 

 cylindrical egg-mass. By means of the anal appendages the female 

 excavates in soft, rotten wood a smooth round hole about an eighth of 

 an inch in diameter. The eggs are placed in two rows, one on each 

 side, and inclined so that, beginning at the end of the hole, each eg^j^ 

 overlies the next in the same row by about half its length. The aper- 

 ture is closed by a little disk of a hard, gummy substance. While bor- 

 ing their boles a frothy fluid is emitted from some part of the abdomen ; 

 but whether it serves to soften the wood or to lubricate the appendages 

 and the sides of the hole, I did not determine. 



When the hole is made and while the eggs are being deposited, the 

 female sits with her body inclined at a low angle, the ends of the foldetl 

 wings resting on the ground, and the fore and middle pairpf feetiu 

 their usual position, the body being mainly supported by tbe hind legs, 

 which are placed as drawn in the figure, resting firmly on the ground, 

 not elevated as in Kiley's figure of G. spretus . A female in confinement, 

 September 24, at xlmherst, Mass., was observed at 2 p. m. with its ab- 

 domen deeply inserted in the soil; at 3.10 p. m. it began to withdraw 

 with much deliberation its abdomen ; it stopped during the process of 

 extraction, having withdrawn its abdomen about a quarter of an inch 

 out of the hole ; at 3.20 p. m'. it entirely withdrew its abdomen. It had 

 laid twenty eggs, naked, in a mass, not having deposited around them 

 any appreciable amount of glutinous matter, though the dirt formed 

 a partial covering for it. This female lived several days after, when I 

 killed it to examine the ovaries, in which were fifteen ovarian eggs from 

 one-third to one-half the size of the ripe eggs. 



Another (]. feniur-rubrum was observed in the act of laying for a 

 hour and a half, but the beginning and end of the process was not ob- 

 served. It seems prol)able from these observations that the process re- 

 quires at least more than two hours, and this being the case it is possible 

 that the eggs are laid singly, otherwise the mass might be deposited at 

 once, in a few minutes. During the process the females are not easily 

 disturbed. 



Several (Edipoda sordida and Carolina were observed laying in the 

 gravelly walk which I frequented every day for a week or fortnight. 

 An ffi. sordida in confinement was observed beginning to bore its hole, 

 pushing the dirt backward and forward with its spines on the abdomen. 

 The duration of the process of copulation not observed. 



Br. Harris has collected, in passages often quoted, the accounts of 

 their ravages in Xortheru New England during the last century. They 

 appeared most frequently in Maine and were alarmingly abundant in 

 the summers of 1743, 1740, 1754,1750 ; in Vermont, in 1707, 1708. They 

 were not afterward noticed by locsl historians until 1821 or 1822. I con- 

 dense the following account, the best we can get here, of their migra- 

 tions, by Dr. K T. True, communicated to Mr. S. H. Scudder and pub- 

 lished in full in the "Final Report of the United States Geological Survey 

 of Nebraska," &c., by F. V. Hayden, 1872. The year 1821 or 1822 was 

 an unusually dry season during the summer months. They devoured 

 the clover and herds-grass, and even nibbled the rake and pitchfork 

 handles made of white ash. "As soon as the hay was cut, and they had 

 eaten every living thing from the ground, they removed to the adjacent 

 crops of grain, completely stripping the leaves; climbing the naked 

 stalks, they would eat off the stems of wheat and rye just below the 



