424 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
To this family belong the true Locusts of the Old World, 
which are mentioned in holy writ as one of the plagues of Egypt, 
and which furnished food in the desert for John the Baptist. 
The most noted member of the family in this country is the Rocky 
Mountain Locust or Hateful Grasshopper (Melanoplus spretus), 
a near relative of our New England Lesser Locust (M. m. atlanis). 
It caused great damage in the Middle West in the late '70's. 
In America these insects are more commonly called Grass- 
hoppers than the members of the family Tettigoniidae (the 
true or Long-horned Grasshoppers) ; and the tangle of scientific 
names applied to the various families and subfamilies of Orthop- 
tera is such as to discourage all but the most determined 
students. 
The changes in the names of the families of saltatorial Orthop- 
tera and the subfamilies of Acrididae which seem to be necessary 
in order to conform to the nomenclature now accepted may be 
stated briefly as follows: 
Former names. 
Locustidae (Long-horned Grasshoppers) 
Acridiidae (Locusts) (from Acridium) 
Tryxalinae 
Acridiinae (from Acridium) 
Tettiginae (from Tettix) 
Now current. 
Tettigoniidae (from Tettigonia) 
Acrididae (from Acrida) 
Acridinae (from Acrida) 
Locustinae (from Locv^ta) 
Acrydiinae (from Acrydium) 
It is unfortunate that such confusion of names should have 
arisen; and much to be desired that permanence of terminology 
be soon secured, even if all the rules intended to bring about that 
end be broken in so doing! 
Systematic works. — "A Synopsis of the North American 
Acrididae" by Cyrus Thomas (1873) included the entire conti- 
nent. It is now quite out of date and nothing has yet appeared 
covering the same field. A manual of this family including the 
entire country is greatly needed but it is probably too soon to 
prepare it with adequate results. Several of the larger groups 
were revised fifteen to twenty years ago, and although they are 
greatly in need of revision at the present time, the works are still 
helpful. Among the principal ones are the following: 
Acridinae: McNeill, J., "Revision of the Truxalinae of North America," 
Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. 6, p. 179-274, pi. 1-6 (1897). 
