CHAPTER X. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



Regarding the popular name of our insect, there is great 

 lack of uniformity in the terms' by which it is designated, 

 and many of my readers, who have been accustomed to 

 hearing these insects very generally called " grasshoppers," 

 will doubtless wonder why I have not followed common 

 usage. In America, the term " Grasshopper " is very gen- 

 erally employed for these insects, but should be abandoned 

 for that of " Locust," which is applied to similar species in 

 nearly all other parts of the world, the " locusts " of Scrip- 

 ture being very closely allied species. As I have already 

 said (6th Mo. Ent. Rep., p. 153, note) : 



It is to be regretted that American entomological writers do not 

 more strictly follow Harris in conforming to the English custom of 

 calling these insects — with short antennae and stridulating by means 

 of the stout hind legs — by the popular term of "locusts;" this 

 being in keeping with ancient usage. The term "grasshopper" 

 would then be confined to the long-horned and long-legged, green 

 group, stridulating solely with the wings, in which the species are 

 more solitary and never congregate in swarms, and in which the 

 female is invariably provided with a sword or cimiter-shaped ovi- 

 positor ; while the term Katydid could be used to designa'e the few 

 larger, tree-inhabiting species of the group, so designated by Harris. 

 Where the habit of calling the Cicada "Locust," and the ''Locust" 

 of ancient usage "Grasshopper," is so inveterate as in this country, 

 it is not easy to change it ; but it seems to me that the change is 

 desirable, and if popular authors would only continue the example 

 of Harris, the change would come about with the greater dissemi- 

 nation of entomological information. 



Almost every entomological author has been under the 

 necessity, at one time or another, of insisting that the 

 " Grasshopper " of this country is the " Locust " of Europe 



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