THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



73 



THE HATEFUL OR COLORADO GRASSHOPPER 



(Cahjptcmis Kpretiis. Uliler and Wal.^li.) y/ 



"VVe have frequent enquiries from corres- 

 pondents, whetlicr the Grasshoppers that have, 

 for the last three years, done so much damage 

 in Kansas and Nebraska, in western Missouri, 

 and in western Iowa, arc not likely to spread 

 gradually eastward, just as the Colorado Potato- 

 bug luas done. In the following paragraphs we 

 shall give, as briefly as possible, our views upon 

 this most important subject. Those who desire 

 to see the subject discussed at full length, in all 

 its bearings, are referred to the 14th chapter of 

 the Annual Report upon Xoxious Insects, by the 

 senior editor of this journal. 



At first sight the Hateful Grasshopper (Fig. 

 Co, a) maybe 

 readily con- 

 founded with 

 the common 

 Ked-legged 

 Grasshopper, 

 (Ca/opteniis 

 femurrubrinii 

 DeGeer, Fig. 

 05, h), which 

 swarms every- 

 where from liind slmnks 'blood-icd. 



Maine to Minnesota, and from Pennsylvania to 

 Kansas and Nebraska. In reality the two species 

 only differ by the wings of the former being from 

 a fourth to a fifth longer, so as to enable it to 

 fly miles at a stretch, while our Eastern species 

 cannot fly more tlian a rod or two at a single 

 flight. Trivial and unimportant as this difl'er- 

 ence may seem to some, it is yet sufficient to 

 separate the two forms as distinct species, see- 

 ing that, so l^ir as regards this character, the two 

 forms do not graduate imperceptibly the one 

 into the other. 



As is also tlie case with the Colorado Potato- 

 bug, the native home of the Colorado Grass- 

 hopper is in the canons (kanyons) of the Rocky 

 Mountains. But the two insects difter in one 

 most important particular. The folrmer can, 

 and does, breed freely, generation after genera- 

 tion, in the lowland country into which circum- 

 , stances have, within (he last ten or twelve years, 

 .illowed it to effect an entrance. The fatmer 

 can not, and does not, so breed ; but, on the 

 contrary, the very first generation that hatches 

 out there in tlie spring, from eggs laid in the 

 preceding autumn, by an invading swarm from 

 the Rocky Mountains, commences to waste away 

 and die out from the very first day of their 



hatching. Even the comparatively few indi- 

 viduals of this brood that attain the perfect or 

 winged state, never lay any eggs at all, but rise 

 up in the air and fly ofl' in a southeast, east, 

 northeast, or northerly direction, after which 

 they gradually die out and perish from oft" the 

 face of the earth, without reproducing their 

 species. 



"But,"' it will be objected, "surely these 

 winged individuals can not fly for ever; they 

 must light down somewhere for food, and wher- 

 ever they light down the females M'ill doubtless 

 lay eggs, from which, in the succeeding season, 

 a fresh generation of Colorado Grasshoppers 

 will take its origin." Strange as it may appear, 

 this is not the case. They do light down occa- 

 sionally for food, but their systems are so dis- 

 eased that even then they eat comparatively but 

 very little — certainly not a thousandth part of 

 what an equally numerous swarm of the same 

 species, fresh from the alpine regions of the 

 Rocky Mountains, would eat — and in no one 

 instance have they ever been known to lay any 

 eggs at all. Neither do they stay any length of 

 time in the particular spot upon which they 

 light down ; but, after a few hours" stay, rise up 

 again into the air, and leave for parts unknown. 

 In all these particulars they dift'er most remark- 

 ably from the swarms that are raised in the Rocky 

 Mountains, and wing their way thence, by 

 one almost continuous flight, into the fertile 

 valley of the Mississippi. For, wherever these 

 last light down, they soon make a clear sweep 

 of every green thing, occupying and possessing 

 the whole country as they slowly proceed from 

 point to point ; and all accounts agree that, as 

 they in'Ogi'css, they fill the earth full of their 

 eggs. 



As the history of these lowland-bred Grass- 

 hoppers, after they take flight and disappear 

 from the place of their nativity, has never 

 hitherto been published, we shall make no 

 apology for presenting it in some detail to our 

 readers. We must first observe, however, that, 

 owing to the influence of the comparatively hot 

 climate of the valley of tlie Mississippi, as con- 

 trasted with that of the cold and bleak regions 

 of the Rocky Mountains, the Hateful Grasshopper 

 attains maturity a full month sooner in the for- 

 mer than in the latter region. For example, in 

 Kansas, Nebraska, west Missouri, and west 

 Iowa, all that reach maturity of the spring hatch 

 of Grasshoppers take wing and disappear from 

 the 24th of June to the 14th of July ; whereas the 

 usual period for the Rocky Mountain swarms to 

 invade that region of country ranges from the 27th 

 of August to the forepart of October, as ascer- 



