ECOLOGY — INTERPRETATION OF ENVIRONMENT 415 



The Lesser Locust 



The lesser locust is one of our commonest species, beginning 

 to mature about the first of June in northern Illinois and at 

 Lakeside, Michigan. It is found in waste places almost every- 

 where, along weeded roadsides, in meadows, and even making 

 cultivated fields and lawns its abode. I found this species 

 in an open meadow south of Jackson Park, Chicago, June 

 18, 1905. A great number of young Orthoptera were seen here, 

 including Melanoplids, Tryxalids, and Edipodids, but the only 

 mature species were the lesser locust, the quaker, and the green- 

 striped locust, all of which I have described in other chapters. 

 The lesser locust was the prevailing species, and it jumped 

 up very often before my footsteps. Many of the individuals 

 had just moulted, as instanced by their pale color and the soft 

 condition of the body. The average adult flew only a yard 

 or two when disturbed, and then it sought cover among the 

 verdure of the grasses, poison ivy, the low hop clover, white 

 clover, sheep sorrel, wild strawberry plants, swamp rose, 

 beach pea, potentilla, bed straws, and other plants too numer- 

 ous to include here. 



The lesser locust will be quite easily recognized from the 

 photographic illustration of the female above and the male 

 below. In the latter the abdominal appendages are quite 

 characteristic, the cerci are about twice as long as broad, the 

 apex rounded, and the apical half is turned upwards. 



Blatchley has found this species in late spring and early 

 summer "resting on iron- weeds and thistles in company with 

 M. gracilis and M. luridus, and other species. The cast-off 

 skin of their final moult is often noted on such weeds, showing 

 that the nymph climbs thereon to change its garment of youth 

 for one of maturity." The genus to which this species belongs 

 comprises no less than one hundred and fifty species in North 

 America. These inconspicuous insects often do' great injury, 

 and in certain years increase in numbers and become a pest 

 to the agriculturist. In former times the migratory locusts, 

 near relatives of the present species, formed into great clouds 

 that destroyed everything in the nature of vegetation that 

 came in their path. The more extensive and intelligent culti- 



