65 



Family 3. — Acridim;, (Locusts.) 



This faruity contains the most destructive insects of the order ; indeed I may say, the 

 most destructive of all insects, the terrible migratory locusts. Both the old and new- 

 worlds have time and again been scourged by their countless millions, well named by the 

 easteim poet, " The army of the Great God." The desolation caused by their ravages 

 has been the theme' of poets and historians since the days of Pharoah's humiliation, 

 when " they covered the face of the whole earth so that the land was darkened." 



The noise made by the beating of their wings during flight has been compared to the 

 rushing of a mighty wind, the roar of distant thunder, the crackling sound of burning 

 stubble, etc., and is thus described by the poet Southey : — 



" Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud 

 Of congregated myriads numberless, 

 The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 

 Of a broad river headlong in its course 

 Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 

 Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm 

 Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks." 



The Acrididce, or Locusts, (Fig. 18) may be distinguished from the grasshoppers by the 

 antennae being short, not exceeding the body in length, and by the number of joints in the 



feet, the locusts having only three. 



the grasshoppers four. The wing- 

 covers are generally long and 

 narrow and slope downwards 

 on the sides like a roof. The 

 under wings are broadly tri- 

 angular, and when at rest are 

 folded in plaits like a fan. In- 

 stead of a long exserted ovi- 

 positor like the grasshoppers 

 and crickets, the female locust is provided with four wedge-like pieces, placed in pairs 

 above and below, and opening and shutting opposite to each other. When about to 

 deposit her eggs the female forces these wedges into the earth, these being opened and 

 withdrawn enlarge the opening ; the operation being repeated until a hole is formed large 

 and deep enough to admit nearly the whole of the body. 



Prof. Riley thus describes the manner in which the Rocky Mountain locust 

 (Caloptenus spretus) deposits her eggs 

 " The female, when about to lay her 

 eggs, forces a hole in the ground by 

 means of the two pairs of horny valves 

 which open and shut at the tip of her 

 abdomen, and which, from their peculiar 

 structure, are admirably fitted for the 

 purpose. With the valves closed she 

 pushes the tips in the ground, and by a 

 series of muscular efforts and the con- 

 tinued opening and shutting of the 

 valves, she drills a hole until, in a few 

 minutes (the time varying with the 

 nature of the soil) the whole abdomen 

 is buried, the tips reaching an inch or 

 more below the surface by means of 

 great distention. Now, with hind legs 

 hoisted straight above the back and 

 the shanks hugging more or less closely the thighs, she commences ovipositing, the eggs 

 being voided in a pale, glistening and glutinous fluid which holds them together and 

 binds them into a long, cylindrical pod, covered with particles of earth which adhere 



5 (en.) 



(Fig. 19 represents the different positions.) 



