General Considerations . 



209 



established. But in a case like that of the use of the 

 terms Locust and Grasshopper, the former, as applied to 

 our Rocky Mountain plague and its allies, has every claim 

 to favor, not only because of its having been longer used, 

 and of its now being more universally used than the latter; 

 but because it has a definite meaning and agrees with the 

 old systematic name of the family to which the species 

 belongs ; while the term "grasshopper" is most loosely 

 applied to almost every field insect that hops. The term 

 locust is, in fact, supposed by many to be derived from the 

 Latin words locusustus, signifying a burnt place, and refer- 

 ring to the desolation, as if by fire, which these insects 

 cause. 



The trivial terms ''Colorado," " Red-legged," and "Hate- 

 ful" have been applied to the species by various writers; 

 but the name " Rocky Mountain Locust," which I have 

 employed, is expressive of the insect's habitat and least 

 open to objection. 



Regarding the scientific name of our insect, it is only 

 necessary to add, in addition to what has already been said, 

 that it belongs to the modern genus Melanoplus of Stal ; 

 but just as this author's subdivisions of certain genera in 

 Coleoptera are not accepted or recognized by many of our 

 best coleopterists, so Melanoplus is not considered as of 

 generic value by some of our best orthopterists ; for which 

 reason I have used the better known and well established 

 genus Caloptenus. The specific name spretus (meaning 

 despised) indicates that, as a species, it was long over- 

 looked by entomologists, and confounded with femur - 

 rubrum. 



PRAIRTE FIRES VS. LOCUST RAVAGES. 



The statement has been made, and advocated with con- 

 siderable ingenuity, that the visitations of the Rocky 



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