THE GRASSHOPPER 



can blame probably on the early settlers of our States, who 

 bestowed upon the creatures encountered in the New 

 World the names of animals familiar at home; but, having 

 no zoologists along for their guidance, they made many 

 errors of identification. Scientists have sought to estab- 

 lish a better state of nomenclatural affairs by creating a 

 set of international names tor all living things, but since 

 their names are in Latin, 

 or Latinized Greek, thev 

 are seldom practicable 

 for everyday purposes. 



Knowing now that a 

 grasshopper is a locust, 

 it only needs to be 

 said that a true locust 

 is any grasshopperlike 

 insect with short horns, 

 or antennae (see Fron- 

 tispiece). A similar in- 

 sect with long slender 

 antennae is either a 

 katydid (Figs. 23, 24), 

 or a member of the 

 cricket family (Fig. 39). 

 If you will collect and 

 examine a tew specimens 

 ot locusts, which we will 

 proceed to call grass- 

 hoppers, you may ob- 

 serve that some have 

 the rear end of the body smoothly rounded and that others 

 have the body ending in four horny prongs. The second 

 kind are females (Fig. 2 B); the others (A) are males and 

 may be disregarded for the present. It is one of the pro- 

 visions of nature that whatever any creature is compelled 

 by its instinct to do, for the doing of that thing it is pro- 

 vided with appropriate tools. Its tools, however, unless 



[3} 



Rig. 2. The end of the body of a male and 



a female grasshopper 

 The body, or abdomen, of a male (A) is 

 bluntly rounded; that of the female (B) 

 bears two pairs of thick prongs, which 

 constitute the egg-laying organ, or ovi- 

 positor (Uvp) 



