24 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



whether a grasshopper can see an object or not with a 

 compound eye. It can discern color and movement 

 very well, but these eyes can probably not define an 

 object to its sight. The ocelli probably enable the 

 grasshopper to see an object, but it must be one that 

 is very close to the eye if it can be seen at all. It 

 must be within half an inch or less of the eye. 



Without any doubt, the grasshopper can feel. The 

 antennae and palpi are usually regarded as feeling 

 organs. It seems certain that the grasshopper can 

 hear, for it can make a noise, and it has an organ on the 

 abdomen that seems to have the structure of an ear. 

 An insect that makes a noise must be supposed to have 

 some means of hearing similar noises that other in- 

 sects of the same kind make. We judge from the 

 food that the grasshopper chooses that it can taste. 

 Whether it tastes with the tongue or palpi we are un- 

 able to say. It is probable that the sense of smell is 

 very different from ours. Our sense of smell is located 

 in the air passages of the nose. We should expect to 

 find the grasshopper's nerves of smell reaching the 

 surface at the spiracles, but such does not seem to be 

 the case. It may be that the sense of smell, or what 

 corresponds to it, is located at the base of the antennae. 



The food of the grasshopper consists of the leaves 

 of plants. The extent of injury grasshoppers do to 

 crops depends entirely upon their numbers. In 1874 

 and 1875 grasshoppers were so numerous that they 

 destroyed all the crops in the greater part of the states 

 of Kansas and Nebraska, and in some parts of Missouri, 

 Iowa, and adjoining states. The grasshopper that did 

 this injury is the kind known as Melanoplus spretus. 

 It is somewhat like the locust mentioned in the Bible. 



Grasshoppers are prevented from becoming too 

 numerous by various enemies, or checks. One enemy 

 of the grasshopper is the silky locust mite. It is a very 

 bright red, eight-legged creature, and is often found 



