ORTHOPTERA OF NOVA SCOTIA. — FIKRS. 211 



The eggs of the Grouse-locusts (Acrydiincc) are laid much 

 earlier in the season than those of most Orthoptera, and 

 hatch in about three weeks, and the young reach maturity 

 by the autumn, and then hibernate in the adult form, coming 

 forth again early the next spring, about the middle of April 

 in western Nova Scotia. 



The Orthoptera have an incomplete metamorphosis, a \d 

 do not pass through grub and chrysalis stages as many insects 

 do. From the time they are hatched, they resemble the 

 adult and are active and feeding, and merely grow and 

 change in some minor details. In the first stage the nymph 

 is wingless, but as it increases in size it moults its skin five 

 times; and the wings, when they are to be present, gradually 

 develop at these periods, but differ from those of the perfect 

 insect in being seemingly placed upside-down and in having 

 the rudimentary' hin.l wings outside of the fore-wings. By 

 these "wing-pads" the nymphs may be readily distinguished 

 from adults. After the final or fifth moult, which takes 

 place several weeks after hatching, they emerge as perfect 

 insects or "imagos" as they are called, cease growing, and 

 are ready to propogate their species and to continue the role 

 of destructors of veT;etation, until they finall}- die, usually 

 when the harder frosts of autumn occur. Adults of the 

 non-hibernating species begin to appear near Halifax towards 

 the middle of July and about the first week of that month 

 in the western counties. Nymphs are still seen for a few 

 weeks after the ad alts begin to appear. Although the various 

 call-notes of Orthoptera form a charming autumnal chorus in 

 the country, and one which we would be very loath to lose, 

 and they themselves are often clad in glad raiment and 

 fair to look upon, yet they are a band of inveterate evil-doers, 

 and deserve scant mercy from the economic entomologist and 

 the farmer. 



Parasites and other enemies. — Among the parasites which 

 attack Orthoptera is a fungus, Empusa grylli, which is most 



