DISEASES OF THE COTTON PLANT. 
161 
plantation, such a remedy is altogether impracticable, and, 
until we can collect further information upon this subject 
from intelligent planters, we must rest content with the 
instinct of our insect allies. 
Geasshoppers. — (Locusta ?) 
Grasshoppers, or, more properly speaking, " locusts," 
occasionally do much damage to young cotton-plants, as 
they not only feed upon the tender leaves, but have been 
caught in the very act of devouring the petals of the 
flowers in the fields of Georgia, as late as the month of 
November ; but, as at this time the grass on which they 
usually feed abounds between the rows, the damage done 
by them to the general crop is but slight. 
Several species of grasshoppers, or locusts, infest old 
cotton and grass fields, some of them being of large size 
and possessing great powers of flight. It may, however, 
be observed, that the true locust is not the insect generally 
known by that name in the United States, which is in 
reality a harvest-fly {Cicada), usually inhabiting trees, 
where it makes an incessant buzzing noise which may be 
heard at a great distance during the summer and autumnal 
evenings. The shape of the harvest-fly is much clumsier 
and broader than that of the real locust, and the under- 
wings are not folded up like a fan, under a wing-case, but 
transparent, stiff, and veined. 
The real locust is similar to the grasshopper in shape, 
but the body is more robust, the antenna3 shorter, and its 
flight much longer and more vigorous. Its under-wings, 
also, when at rest, are folded up in fan-like plaits under 
the outer-wing covers. Grasshoppers and locusts are pro- 
duced from eggs as perfect insects, with legs and antennae. 
