ALARM CAUSED BY HARMLESS LOCUSTS. 



255 



several days without feeding; tbat the nibbling and fretting. of these 

 young is hardly noticeable ; and that, as we have abundantly proved the 

 past summer, these insects are fond of drinking at all stages of growth. 



UNNECESSARY ALARM OFTEN CAUSED BY COMTARATIYELY HARMLESS 



LOCUSTS. 



During years of locust trouble the sense of apprehension is always 

 keen; and many harmless species are looked upon with suspicion by 

 those especially who live beyond the limit of 

 the range of the migratory species, and have 

 no personal acquaintance with it. The large, 

 short-winged locust herewith figured is not in- 

 frequently supposed to have some connection 

 with the destructive spretus. It is the Br achy- 

 peplus magnus of entomologists, and may be 

 popularly called the Clumsy Locust. It is one 

 of our largest and clumsiest species, incapable 

 of flight, and never doing serious injury. It is 

 common on the plains of Western Kansas and 

 Colorado, and has been found in West Missouri. 

 It is prettily marked, as in Fig. 8. and occurs 

 in two distinct varieties, one in which a bright 

 yellowish-green prevails, and the other in 

 which fleshy tints and pale brown predomi- 

 nate. There can be no connection between 

 its appearance and that of spretus. 



Eeportsare frequent during the mild weather 

 of winter that "the grasshoppers have appear- 

 ed," and during very mild weather, such as we 

 had in the winter of 1876-'77, the young of the (^^^«^ ^ii«y> 

 Eocky Mountain locust do sometimes prematurely hatch ; but in the 

 great majority of cases the reports of the appearance of this pest in winter 

 are based upon mistaken identity. We have repeatedly had specimens 

 of these young locusts sent to us under the impression by the sender 

 that they were the genuine spretus. One of the most common of the 

 locusts which'thus give rise to erroneous impressions is the Green-striped 

 ]ocust {TragocepJiala viridi/asciata), a very common spexjies, ranging from 

 Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic to Nebraska. It passes the 

 winter in the immature condition, sheltering in meadows and in tufts of 

 grass, and becoming active whenever the weather is mild. It is some- 

 times found in winter in the early larva stages, but more often in the 

 pupa state, and becomes fledged toward the end of April. ^ 



'*It differs geinerically from the Eocky Mountain locust, which hiber- 

 nates in the dgg state. This Green-striped locust, as its name implies, 

 has, when mature, a broad green stripe on the front wing, and by its 

 narrower, humped and keeled thorax or fore-body (Fig. 41), may at once 



Clumsy Locrsx. 



