THE LIVING WORLD. 
241 
supplied with a drum-like attachment, which is the means of the reveille 
which we hear. Of the wingless species, the so-called stone-crickets are a 
type. One species of the winged kind is migratory in its habits, and sometimes 
descends upon the valleys in numbers like the famed army of Xerxes. 
The true Grasshopper is herbivorous, and sufficiently common to make 
the means of study easy. 
However delightful to chil¬ 
dren and interesting to ento¬ 
mologists, the grasshopper is 
at times incredibly destructive. 
Prof. C. V. Riley devoted 
much time to the study of 
these successors to the bor¬ 
der ruffians, and a summary 
of his results will be found 
of interest. Fifteen million 
dollars is the loss inflicted in 
a single year. 
The grasshopper is a genuine troubadour, and his musical call to court¬ 
ship is produced by a transparent membrane covering a hole at the base of 
the wings. Like many a singer of mediaeval times, he devotes the hours not 
given to love to plundering, and in wanton wastefulness puts to the blush the 
famous Goths and Vandals. 
The Acrididae, or True Locusts, 
is the largest family and the most 
destructive among insects. They have 
short antennae, composed of numerous 
joints. The migratory species is fre¬ 
quently referred to in the Bible. The 
Rocky Mountain locust wrought such 
devastation in the seventies that it has 
been credited with causing the financial 
crisis. The fact that this locust is un¬ 
usually developed in its digestive and 
reproductive system; that it is strong of 
wing and fitted for continued flights; 
that it is gregarious, and that a swarm 
is always perfectly organized, renders it 
an intruder to be feared. In a few hours 
they have reduced wide stretches of the 
most promising corn to mere stubble ; they 
come apparently as avengers of uncon¬ 
scious wrong, for the resistless torrent 
of their approach most frequently occurs when the crop is largest and ripest; 
and when settled good weather has led the farmer to escape for a moment 
from his ever-recurring cares, and to dream those dreams which steal over 
him as he stands about to realize the returns for severe and long-continued 
toil and self-denial. 
Migratory Locusts. The swarming of the armies of the world would 
16 
mole-cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris ). 
MAY-BEETLE—NYMPH, LARVAE AND FLY. 
