50 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL IGNORANCE IN THE NORTH. 



The following paragraph, with a few altera- 

 tions or additions to suit tlio local market, is 

 row (June, 'CS) throughout the Northern States 

 going the rounds of tlie political and of the agri- 

 cultural press. AVe propose to show that it con- 

 tains the very quintessence of ignorance and 

 folly; and that what it asserts to have actually 

 taken place is simply a physical impossibility- 



Colors— Bro™ 



The ',e\cntccn ^eii !nni<!t hi 



pist nil l( tlidi apiK 11111(0 on 



lions of them m the \ lunitj ot K itth u en and 1 auii„- 

 ildlc Ihey (leiour eiery thing qteen that comes m then 

 uay, and gieat fear is enteitained that the Lrowing 

 ciops will be dcstioyed 



There is scarcely an entomologist in America 

 that has not at least once, and often for scores 

 of times, busied himself in explaining to the 

 people the wide and fundamental difference be- 

 tween tlie so-called "Locusts" of the United 

 States and the " True Locusts " of Scripture and 

 [Fig. 530 of modern Europe. The ^* 

 latter (Fig. 62) really do 

 often " devour evcrj' green 

 thing upon the face of the 

 earth;" while the former 

 (Fig. 68)* having no jaws 

 at all to eat with, and only 

 \ a beak (Pig. 53 «) to suck 

 sap with, are physically in- 

 capable of eating anything 

 at all. The two kinds of 

 insects do not even belong 

 ,to the same order, or to 

 ai.aor^..Bc. ^^^ samc graud group of 

 orders. The former arc "Suckers" 

 {Haustellatd) -^ i\\c \a,i[cY are "Biters" 

 (Mmidibulata) . The former belong to 

 the order Homoptera ; the latter to the 

 order Orthoptera. The former have their 

 front wings glassy and transparent; the lat- 

 ter have them more or less leathery and 

 opaque. The former have a mere apology 

 for antenu.T, which the general observer 

 would e ntirely overlook; the latter have 



• In this figure the left wing is oroppecl off close to its 

 hase, to show the shape of .the bodj'. 



Colors— Bl'k, brown 



quite conspicuous and rather long antennte. In 

 one word, what we call "Locusts" in America 

 are called "Cicalas" or "Cicadas" in Europe; 

 and what in the old world are known as "Lo- 

 custs" are dubbed "Grasshoppers" in tlie 

 United States. Yet, in spite of all that we poor 

 despised bughunters can do and say on the sub- 

 ject, the people of America will probably, many 

 of them, persist until the end of time, in be- 

 lieving tliat a Locust is nothing but a Locust, 

 no matter what the local diflcrence in 

 the meaning of the term may be ; and 

 that an (American) Locust without any 

 jaws at all can and often does ravage the 

 vegetable kingdom as terribly as the 

 (European) Locust, that has got good 

 stoitt serviceable jaws of its own. 



Shakspeare has poetically remarked, 

 that "a rose by any other name would 

 smell as sweet;" but there is a great deal 

 moie in a name than Sliakspeare seems to 

 ha\ e imagined. Suppose that roses were popu- 

 liily called " Slaink-cabbages " in America. 

 "What lover would dare to present to his mis- 

 tiess a bouquet composed of flowers bearing 

 '-ueh an unsavory appellation? Or what lady, 

 if she had such a bouquet actually presented to 

 her, would trust her nostrils within a foot of it? 

 It is just the same thing with insects. For ex- 

 ample: Because the groux^ of bugs, which an- 

 cient Scripture and modern European writers 

 call "Locusts," arc rechristcncd as " Grasshop- 

 pers" with us, people think comparatively but 

 little about them; although in parts of the wide 

 region of country that intervenes between the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi river, 

 they liave in particular seasons, for instance iu 

 18G6-7 and 1867-8, done fully as much damage 

 to the crops as the true " Locusts " of Europe 

 sometimes do in particular regions of the Old 

 World. If, on the other hand, these same bugs 

 were called "Locusts," people would be scared 

 to death when they heard of clouds of them so 

 prodigiously numerous, that they absolutely ob- 

 scured the light of the sun. 



Conversely, because we in America liave cho- 

 sen to call what are properly speaking "Cica- 

 das" or "Cicalas" by the ominous name of 

 "Locusts," people have thoughtlessly jumped 

 to the conclusion, that they must necessarily 

 have the same voracious appetite as the " Lo- 

 custs," that as Scripture tells us formerly devour- 

 ed every green thing throughout the land of 

 Egypt. About a hundred years ago Morton in 

 New England described them as "eating iipthe 

 green things, and making such a constant yell- 

 ing noise as made the woods ring of them." 



