the day, if the sun be obscured by a dark 

 cloud. It is said that a practiced ear can 

 distinguish the song produced by the 

 stridulation of even closely allied species. 

 The life history of the Grasshopper is, 

 unlike the butterflies and moths, an in- 

 complete metamorphosis. The latter in- 

 sects have four distinct stages in their 

 development — the egg; the larva, or the 

 caterpillar, or worm-like stage ; the pupa 

 stage, in which the insect rests from eat- 

 ing and growing, and undergoes a trans- 

 formation into the adult or last stage. In 

 the Grasshoppers, however, the young 

 when they are hatched from the eggs 

 have the same general form as that of the 

 adult, but are wingless. 



The larger number of the Grasshop- 

 pers deposit their eggs in holes in the 

 ground, which they have excavated. 

 Some of the long-horned species, how- 

 ever, deposit the eggs in fissures in the 

 bark of trees ; on the twigs and leaves ; 

 on fence boards and posts and in many 

 peculiar places. Many of the Grass- 

 hoppers pass the winter in the egg stage. 

 Hatching in the spring, the young Grass- 

 hoppers begin to feed and as they grow, 

 they moult their skins a number of times 

 each time showing a greater development 

 of the wings until the last moulting, 

 when the insect attains its full wings. 

 The period between hatching and matur- 

 ity covers a number of days or even 

 weeks, during which time the young in- 

 sects moult four or five times. 



The Grasshoppers are among our most 

 notable insect pests and were it not for 

 the parasites that feed upon them, they 

 would be so numerous each season that 

 in many localities they would prove a 

 veritable scourge. When present in large 

 numbers, both the short-horned and the 

 long-horned Grasshoppers are very de- 

 structive to vegetation, upon which thev 

 exclusively feed. "Born with one earthly 

 desire — a voracious appetite — and with 

 one valuable possession — a pair of strong, 

 broad jaws, which move in and out like 

 the blades of a pair of scissors — the lit- 

 tle hopper soon begins to use the latter 

 to appease the former, and for twenty- 

 four hours a day and seven days in a 

 week he gnaws away at the soft, green, 

 succulent grass which surrounds him on 

 every side." 



The interesting and peculiar Grasshop- 

 pers which were photographed for our 

 illustration were captured by Mr. Frank 

 M. Woodruff, while on a recent collect- 

 ing trip through the San Bias mountain 

 region of Mexico. Mr. Woodruff says: 

 "The beautifully and variously colored 

 Grasshoppers form one of the most inter- 

 esting of the natural features which con- 

 front the naturalist traveling through the 

 San Bias region of Mexico. I greatly 

 regret that I was not prepared nor had 

 the time to make an extensive collection 

 of these strange forms of insect life. For 

 the benefit of the many lovers of nature 

 who may take a hurried trip through a 

 similar region without providing them- 

 selves with the usual insect-collecting 

 paraphernalia, I will describe the method 

 I followed in collecting and saving these 

 insects. Curing them in the manner 

 which I adopted seems to preserve the 

 rich color better than the cyanide bottle 

 or alcohol. 



"The most beautiful of the specimens 

 which my party found was the large cen- 

 tral individual of our illustration. Like 

 nearly all of the other species of Grass- 

 hoppers, the males of this species 

 (Taeniopoda picticornis) seem to be dis- 

 proportionately small. We found this 

 Grasshopper only in the tops of the tall 

 feathery grass growing in the smaller 

 canyons and in the fertile portions of the 

 adjacent desert region. They were so 

 sluggish at this season (November) that 

 we obtained our specimens while pro- 

 gressing on horseback by reaching out 

 and picking them from the grass. I 

 found that if they were placed in a box 

 alive they would soon injure the wings 

 and that the only way to preserve them 

 uninjured was to kill them immediately. 

 This I did by pouring whiskey — of which, 

 you may be assured, our guides had a 

 plentiful supply — into a tin cup and hold- 

 ing the Grasshoppers in it until they 

 were dead. I then removed the viscera 

 through a small incision in the abdomen 

 of each insect and inserted a quantity of 

 arsenic. The specimens were then 

 packed, with their wings closed, quite 

 tightly in a box. My companions were 

 greatly amused at my antics while pre- 

 paring the specimens and at the same 



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