ACRIDIIDiE. 
79 
but apparently have no regular seasons. They breed throughout the 
year except in the very cold weather and probably not when food is 
scarce. The Black Spotted Grasshopper ( Cyrtacanthacris ranacea stoll) 
is an example, as are the species of Chrotogonus and Atractomorpha 
crenulata. Hibernation and astivation appear to be passed almost 
wholly in the egg in the plains, only a small proportion as imagines ; 
this varies however with different degrees of cold and dryness in different 
localities. A few hibernate as imagines or nymphs in the colder parts of 
the plains. Apparently there is a great variety in this respect and a far 
larger number of species require to be worked out before one can gene¬ 
ralise on this point. So far as known no Acridiid is anything but herbi¬ 
vorous, feeding on green plants ; some have a single food plant, others 
several and many appear to be to some extent omnivorous. Grasses and 
gramineous crops are the principal food plants but flowering plants, 
shrubs and bushes are not exempt. Locusts have a very wide range of 
food plants. 
Nymphs and adults live free lives, and are found wherever there is 
vegetation. The greater number are to be found in grasslands, in open 
waste lands, among low herbage. Others live among shrubs, a few 
on trees. Open moors, sand dunes, fallow land also contain other 
species and they range from the plains to considerable altitudes in the 
hills, with their maximum de velopment in the grasslands of the plains. 
This is one of the few families in which the number of purely 4 4 plains 
species 5 ’ is as great as the number found in submontane forest and 
jungle areas. 
This family, being wholly herbivorous and very abundant, is one 
of the most injurious to Agriculture. Besides the two locusts, there are 
grasshoppers which attack special crops and the many species, which 
when abundant, attack gramineous crops. Few of these are specific 
pests of particular crops, they occur spasmodically and irregularly and, 
since grasshoppers are of universal occurrence, nothing is done to check 
them until they are already abundantly destructive. A distinct class 
of pest are the Surface Grasshoppers, species belonging to the genera 
Chrotogonus , Epacromia, Atractomorpha, which live on the soil and 
attack young crops. Little is known of which species of grasshopper 
are destructive since the actually destructive species is not always the 
