IN continuation of the subject commenced on page 585 of the Agricultural Department of the Patent Office Report for 1861, it seems advisable that I should, in this place, briefly notice a small order of small destructive insects, which are generally regarded as occupying a position in scientific arrangement intermediate between the orders COLEOPTERA, or “Beetles,” and ORTHOPTERA, which latter includes the insects commonly known under the names of “Soothsayers,” “Spectres,” “Molecrickets,” "Cockroaches,” "Katydids,” “Grasshoppers,” “Field Crickets,” &c., &c.

The intermediate insects to which I refer have been erected into a distinct order by Mr. Westwood, which he names EUPLEXOPTERA, but which are more familiarly known by the common name of "Earwigs.” Doubtless this popular appellation originates in a notion that has long prevailed in localities where these insects most extensively abound, that they are prone to enter the ears of persons who, may be sleeping on the ground or in the vicinity of their nests; but as this may be altogether a misapprehension of the nature and habits of the insect, it may be of as much importance to know what it does not do as it is to know what it does do. Earwigs are nocturnal insects, and all nocturnal insects shun the light, and are very apt to creep into any dark place of concealment at the approach of light, and therefore, at the sudden advent of light, the earwig may have crept into the human ear; but, being exclusively vegetable feeders, the secretions of the ear itself would naturally expel them from it, or destroy them. That the earwig enters the human ear from choice has, I believe, not yet been satisfactorily demonstrated. Indeed, it may be worthy of inquiry whether the term is not a contraction of Earwing, for it will require very little assistance to the imagination to perceive a strong resemblance in form between the expanded wing of this insect and the upper portion of the human ear.

These insects were placed by Linnæus at the end of the order Coleoptera, immediately after his genus Staphylinus, because of their close alliance to that genus in their general forms.—(See figure 19, page 596, Agricultural Patent Office Report, 1861.) But Fabricius and others, perhaps more properly, referred them to the Orthoptera, to which they seem nearer allied in their transformations and habits. In short, they have the form, the transverse folding of the wings, and some of the feeding habits of the Coleoptera, but the masticatory organs, the active larva, pupa, and imago, characteristics of the Orthoptera; but, differing from both of these orders, the anal segment of the body is armed with a formidable pair of forceps, which move horizontally like the mandibles or jaws of some species of coleoptera. This latter peculiarity of structure, or these caudal appendages, will assist the amateur in distinguishing these insects from others which they so nearly resemble in form, for these forceps are distinguishable, even in the young, which do not differ materially from the adult insect, except in the absence of wings and wing-covers, and the less developed state of the anal appendages referred to.

The species belonging to this order are small and few in number, but they are widely distributed throughout the world, the same species sometimes existing in countries that are widely remote from each other; but wherever they are found they are the same destructive little pests of the vegetable and flower cultivator, and will require the same means to guard against their depredations or to effect their extermination. Notorious, however, as the earwig has become in foreign countries—especially in England—it has not, thus far, been even a very common insect in the latitude of middle or southern Pennsylvania, although we frequently see or hear of damages done to flowering vegetation whilst it is in bloom that corresponds with what is recorded of these insects abroad. As they are fully as nocturnal in their habits as the Cockroaches, to which they are in some respects allied, and with which they are by some systematists classified, it is possible that these insects may have been the instruments of injuries sustained by vegetation which have been attributed to other causes. It is therefore of sufficient importance that a passing notice of these insects should be made here, because the fact of their existence in the United States may admonish us of the possibility of their increase to such a degree as to be capable of proving a serious injury, not only to flowers, such as pinks, carnations, dahlias, &c., but also to fruit, which they are also known to attack.

The order Euplexoptera consists of a single family, FORFICULIDÆ—a name derived from their anal forceps—which is mainly divisible into three genera, namely, Labidura, Forficula, and Labia. Mos: of our native species do not exceed a quarter of an inch in length and therefore the more effectually to impress the form upon the mind of the reader a large foreign species is here illustrated as (Fig. 1,) namely, a male Forficesila gigantica. As these insects, for the most part, remain hidden during the day, in any little crevice or crack, if it is only large enough to admit the head and thorax, it has suggested the plan among gardeners of setting traps for them made out of hollow pieces of reed, ox hoofs, or anything of a similar character, containing a small quantity of hair or wool. Into these traps the insects creep at the approach of morning, after a night’s prowling or marauding, and then are easily captured and destroyed.  Forficula auriculara is the type of the family, and is about one inch long and of a dull ashen color, having a wide range of habitation, being known to exist in North and South America, Europe, and Japan. As their introduction here from foreign countries is a possible thing, and as they sometimes occur in immense profusion, destroying not only flowers and fruits but even cabbages and other vegetation, it is of some importance that something should be known of them in advance.

Earwigs deposit their eggs under stones on the ground, and the female—of some species, at least—broods over them like a hen, and after the eggs are hatched manifests her interest in the safety of the young in a remarkable manner.  From the moment that the young have escaped from the eggs they have the form of the parent, all but the wings; and, without the complete transformation of the Coleoptera—which they most resemble in appearance—they undergo merely a series of moultings, continuing active feeders until they are perfectly developed. In the months of April and May they are most abundantly found under stones, outhouses, or under the loosé*bark of wood, concealed during the day, but, like their cousins, the cockroaches, they come abroad and maraud during tne night. Fig. 2 is Forficula auricularia, showing the expansion of the wings, and Fig. 3 is the young larva. A generic or specific description of these insects is not essential to the general character of these papers, and is of little importance to the practical florist or gardener.

The term Orthoptera means “straight wings,” because the insects belonging to this order have their underwings gathered up in longitudinal folds like a fan, a striking illustration of which may be found in the common “grasshopper.”  Almost the entire order are vegetable feeders, and are therefore in a greater or less degree destructive to the productions of the soil, although a few of them will feed, indiscriminately, upon anything that comes in their way. The ravages of some of the insects belonging to this order have been so extensive in some parts of the world, and are so well known to the masses of intelligent men, that it would seem almost unnecessary to go into any details in reference to their history and habits in this place, and yet there is so much in connexion with them that is not accessible to the general reader or the common observer that more extended remarks upon their peculiarities and their economies cannot fail to be instructive and useful to the husbandman. For the sake of facilitating their study they have been divided by systematists into at least four prominent sections, each of which is characterized by some peculiarity of form, structure or habit, by which they may be readily distinguished from the others.  Unlike the coleopterous insects, they do not visibly emerge from the egg state in the form of a grub or worm, which is followed by a quiescent or pupa state, during which time there is an entire suspension of the gastronomical functions; bug, on the contrary, they emerge from the egg a perfectly formed insect, lacking only the wings, wing-covers, and the more perfectly proportioned and textural development and size of the adult or parent individuals, by which we are on every hand surrounded. For the most part they feed very voraciously from the period of their expulsion from the egg all through the three stages corresponding to larva, pupa and imago in most other insects, and do not cease feeding until the end of the season, a single one of which they only usually survive. I said they do not visibly emerge from the egg state in the form of a “worm,” and yet there is a finely spun theory, based upon very laborious and searching observations, which has demonstrated that both orthopterous and hemipter us insects do go through a perfect larva and pupa change, within the shell of the egg, before they are expelled from it in the form of the parent insect in which we see them, entirely overthrowing the older theory, that after the development of the imago state insects do not grow. Although it may have been of sufficient value to mention this fact in this place, yet as its practical bearings upon the subject are not of sufficient importance to make it a fundamental principle in the general plan of these papers, its further discussion will be entirely waived. The first division of the insects of this order has been classified by Mr. Westwood under the name of orthoptera, curseria or RUNNERS, which includes the “cockroaches,” and also formerly included the “earwigs;” but as these latter have not got the straight fan-like folding of the wings, and differ also materially in other respects, they have been separated from them, and have been erected into a new order, which has been already noticed in its place.

Of the cockroaches the most common and the most destructive species in in this country is the “Oriental cockroach,” (Blatta orientalis,) figure 5, a female, and B. Americana, figure 4. Figures 6 and 7 exhibit the internal and external structure of the “egg."  This insect is said to have been introduced from Asia into Europe and from Europe into America, and it is presumed that there is not now a maritime nation in the world where it does not exist. This species is generally found about human habitations, prowling about at night in search of food, and is both destructive and offensive; but we have also a number of native species, found in fields and woods, under stones, timbers and bark of trees. The female cockroaches may be sometimes seen running around with a seed-like egg or capsule protruding from the caudal segment of the abdomen, nearly half its size.  This is not a single egg, but, on the contrary, this capsule contains two sets of cells, arranged something like a double row of cartridges in a cartridge box, in each of which there is an egg. Along the one side of this capsule, which bears a strong resemblance in form and color to a diminutive “paw-paw” seed, there s a longitudinal vent, which is united together by a mucilage, voided with it by the female, and when the young are hatched from the eggs within the capsule they secrete a liquid which dissolves this mucilage, and thus they make their escape, leaving their infantile receptacle as entire as it was before they quitted it. After moulting or casting off their skins several times—for a few hours after which the insect is entirely white, but gradually changes to black or dark or light brown, according to the species—these insects are finally developed into the full-grown individuals we see, all the males acquiring wings capable of bearing them in flight, whilst the females are either wingless or have these appendages only short or rudimental. The most destructive species of these insects are too well known to need a further description of them here.

The number of species belonging to the genus Blatta is not great in our country, comprising six or seven, including the orientalis, which, as before stated, has been introduced, and from which we most suffer. If we suffer from this foreign importation, however, foreign countries also are becoming afflicted with one of our native species, which we have exported, namely, the Blatta Americana,¹ which is at least common in the maritime towns of England.

The remedies for the destruction of cockroaches are many, among which the following have been regarded as effectual. Mix a tablespoonfull of red lead and Indian meal, with as much molasses as will make a thick batter, and place the mixture in and about such places as are infested with these insects at night.  Another remedy is to mix a teaspoonfull of powdered arsenic with a tablespoonfull of mashed potatos, and crumble it at night in such places as are infested with the insects, where they may discover and devour it, continuing these remedies every night successively until all are destroyed. “Costar’s rat and roach remedy,” kept for sale at the drug stores and elsewhere, has also been considered an effectual remedy for the destruction of these offensive insects. Great care should be taken, however, in the use of these remedies, as they are very poisonous. Various kinds of traps have been also recommended from time to time, which are nightly baited, and the contents thrown into the fire or into scalding water in the morning. As these insects love heat and are usually found in and about ovens and fireplaces, this peculiarity in their economy may suggest the most proper places where traps or poisons should be deposited, in order to secure them, or effect their destruction. A deep bowl, glazed or smooth inside, with rough and easy approaches from the outside, and baited with some substance that will attract these insects by its odor—old cheese, for instance—is considered a good form for a cockroach trap. Boxes partly filled with water, and having a nicely adjusted tilting lid, is another good form of a trap.

These insects are, however, subject to the attacks of various parasites, which probably destroy more of them than ever comes to our knowledge. There are species of Sphex, a Hymenopterous insect, (which will be noticed in its proper time and place,) which provision their nests with cockroaches. There are also species of Ichneumon (belonging to the same order) which deposit their eggs in the capsules, where they are hatched, and the young ichneumon feeds upon the egg or young cockroach. Mr. Westwood records an instance of seven specimens of a small species of Eulophus (a hymenopterous insect) being taken from a single capsule of Blatta Americana.  There are also several species of birds which devour these insects, which may account for the small number met with in woods and fields, or other exposed places, compared with those found about dwelling houses, where they are protected from these enemies. The common hedge-hog is also said to devour them. The precaution of gathering all the capsules that are found on disturbing their nests, and burning or scalding them, may also have the effect of lessening their numbers, for these casules often contain the elements, or embryos, of from twenty to thirty cockroaches. The rapid increase of these insects, the facility with which their migration to other localities is effected, and the great injury they are capable of inflicting upon the human family, are sufficient incentives to desire their entire extermination.

The second section is called Orthoptera raptoria, or GRASPERS, and includes the various species of Mantes or Soothsayers,” (one of which has been figured and described in the Ag. Pat. Of. Report for 1854, under the name of “Rearhorse Mantis,”) the most common and abundant species of which, in the United States, is Mantis Carolina—Fig. 8, adult; Fig. 9, young; Fig. 10, eggs. This raptorial section of the order Orthoptera constitutes the only redeeming quality that is found among them, all the others being destructive to vegetation, (an also to animal substances in some cases;) but these are predaceous, and feed upon other subjects of the insect kingdom, and, if straitened for the want, of food, upon each other. The species is here reproduced and illustrated, in order to show their raptorial structure, in contrast with the other insects of the same natural order. It will be seen that their anterior pair of legs are very much developed, showing comparatively great muscular power, which enables them to seize and hold other insects whilst they are devouring them at their leisure. In the first section it was seen that all the legs of the insects belonging to it were of equal symmetrical development and power, because they were formed for running; but in this section a great inequality exists, the insects belonging to it being formed for grasping their prey; and, therefore, the posterior and intermediate legs are formed for a slow, stealthy movement, the insects lying in wait for, and pouncing upon, any luckless denizen of the insect world that may come within reach of their rapacious grasp. When the husbandman observes an insect with this peculiarity of structure he may feel assured that it is permitted for a specific purpose, and that that purpose is the seizing and retaining of some object that would otherwise be likely to make its escape. The Mantis or Soothsayer is also common on the continents of Europe and Asia, where the singularity of its posture, whilst watching for its prey, has given rise to many superstitions, tales, and beliefs, which are retained, in many instances, in its nomenclature. The country people of France, therefore, assuming that it is engaged in prayer, have named it "Prie Dieu," and the Germans call it “Gottes Anbeter;” hence, also, have been derived the Latin specific names, “religiosa, precaria, oratoria, mendica, superstitiosa", and others. Saint Francis Xavier seems to have almost deified it among the common people by endowing it with extraordinary understanding and vocal powers. It is, however, a “preying Mantis;” but in the word pray the letter “a” must give place to the “e,” which will leave the name in true conformity with its real character.

The Mantis Carolina, Linn., when full grown, is about two inches in length; some specimens exceed that length, and others do not attain it. The color varies from a greenish to a mottled brown, according to sex and age; the thorax is nearly half the length of the body; the eyes are prominent, and the antennæ filliform, or slender and hair-like.  As before remarked, all the legs are slender except the anterior pair, which are very much “produced,” and are spiney or toothed along the lower margin of the tibia. These insects are principally confined to the middle and southern States, where they perform a most important use as scavengers of some of the noxious tribes, being known as most voracious feeders, daily destroying a large number of caterpillars, aphids, moths, flies, or any other insect that may happen to fall in their way when hungry. In autumn the females lay from fifty to a hundred oblong eggs, that are longitudinally cemented together and fastened to a branch, having something the appearance of a miniature honeycomb, where they remain exposed to the weather all winter, and are hatched in the spring. The amount of cold these eggs are capable of bearing may be inferred from the fact that the Mantis has been successfully raised for two or three consecutive seasons within the limits of Lancaster city, Pa., from eggs brought here from Maryland, during which time, on several occasions, the cold had been from four to ten degrees below zero.

I feel justified in this extended notice of this insect in this place because of its great usefulness, and because I believe it capable of being colonized in favorable localities considerably north of its usual range. For instance, in gardens exposed to a southern sun, and protected against the cold northern blasts, it would be an invaluable and constant assistant in protecting vegetation from the incursions of aphids or other noxious insects. In hot or cold "green-houses” they could be unquestionably reared with entire success. In the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburg, some years ago, the Leaf Insect” (Phyllium scythe) was for several years successfully raised from eggs originally brought from the East Indies. This insect belongs to the same natural order that the Mantis does, and is nearly allied to it in its development, although, being a vegetable feeder, differing from it very materially in its habits.  The Mantis are even, in some degree, capable of “domestication; for it is not an uncommon thing in their native localities to find them so familiarized with certain individuals as to receive food from their hands. The young of these insects differ very little from the adults except in size and the absence of wings. It is recorded that in the absence of other prey these young sometimes fall victims to the rapacity of their parents; and that if pressed for food even the adults will attack each other, the weaker subjects in these contests being seized and devoured without ceremony by the stronger.

The third section is called Orthoptera ambulatoria, or WALKERS, and includes a weak and slender-legged family of insects called “Spectres,” or "Walking-twigs,” "Leaf Insects,” &c.  Many of these insects exhibit very extraordinary forms, resembling animated leaves or small twigs; hence their common names; but most of them belong to warm or tropical climates.  In the United States but two species have been discovered, which have been described by Say under the names of Spectrum femoratum and S. bivittatum, the former of which is illustrated by Fig. 11, a male specimen. The body of some of these insects, when full grown, attains to fully three inches in length; the color, various shades of green; and the limbs are long and slender, the intermediate and posterior pair of legs being armed with a short spine, near the end, on the lower margin of the femur, and the antennæ being long and thread-like. The bodies of the females are more robust than those of the males, and the legs and antennæ are shorter, and they are destitute of spines.  These insects move slow and sluggishly over the foliage of plants and shrubs on which they feed, having a partialitv for the young leaves and buds of the sassafras, (Saxifraga;) but they are not yet sufficiently numerous in this country to cause any serious alarm, although in foreign countries allied species have been destructive to vegetation. It is well, however, to make a record of them in their proper place, and to admonish the cultivator of the soil, and especially the nurserymen of our country, that as these insects can be of no possible enefit to vegetation, but may be ultimately an injury to it, therefore when they meet them they may know precisely what disposition to make of them. TUnder any circumstances it would neither be wisdom nor good husbandry to allow them to increase; for attaining such formidable proportions, and being so closely related to the greatest cormorants of the insect race, if they should haplessly occur in great numbers, they would not be long occupied in defoliating trees and shrubbery to an immense extent.

The fourth section is called Ortkoptera saltatoria, or JUMPERS or LEAPERS, and includes the various species of grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, &c., &c.  The crickets, which are usually considered first in scientific arrangement, may, for the sake of convenience, be divided into three kinds, namely, burrowing crickets, field crickets, and climbing crickets. Perhaps the most singular in their structure, and the most injurious in their habits, are the "burrowing crickets,” or perhaps more properly called mole crickets, from their resemblance to a ground mole in the form of the anterior legs and the front of the body.  These insects are known to scientific men under the generic term of Gryllotalpa, which is a combination of the Latin names for a mole and a crickez.  The most common species belonging to this genus in this country is the Gryllotalpa brevipennis of Harris—G. borealis if Brown. This insect is found in low and moist gardens and meadow lands² burrowing in the earth similar to a “ground mole,” doing considerable damage to vegetation by destroying the roots. Fig.12 is an illustration of this species, and Fig. 13 is the nest and eggs.  When full grown this insect attains from one inch and a quarter to one inch and a half in length; the color is a light bay brown or fawn color; and it is covered with very short hairs, giving it a so velvet{ appearance. It will be observed that the anterior pair of legs is very much developed, giving them in some measure the appearance of the hands of the mole. With these digging facilities the insect is capable of burying itself in the earth in an incredibly short space of time. The posterior pair of legs is also proportionately large, giving the insect the power also of leaping; but it cannot leap far, and depends more upon its digging powers than upon any other in obtaining its food, living, as it does, upon the roots of vegetation. In foreign countries the mole cricket has been known to be exceedingly injurious, and possibly vegetation may have sustained injuries by them in this country without persons having known what has been the cause of such injuries.

In the West Indies this insect, or rather a species called Gryllotalpa didactyla, has been charged with the destruction of the sugar cane, and it is not impossible that in the United States our insect may become equally injurious, when its number increases as it has in other countries. The European species is said to lay from two to three hundred eggs, of a brownish color, and the inference is that our native species are equally prolific. Some years ago I discovered a nest containing a large number of eggs, perhaps two hundred or more, without knowing to what insect they may have belonged; but I have since been satisfied that it was the nest and eggs of a mole cricket, for the insect was also found in the same locality, and the former corresponded, so far as T can recollect, with descriptions which I have since read of the nests and eggs of these insects. As it takes the mole cricket three years to mature its state, it will be seen that during that time it will require a considerable quantity of food, and that therefore it may become proportionably destructive.

The nests are hollow cavities in the earth, made smooth inside, having a single passage leading into them, but around them there are usually a number of diverging passages or chambers, and the earth immediately surrounding the eggs is packed so tight, or is so permeated with an adhesive fluid as to render it capable of being lifted out entire, if care is observed. The insect is said to raise and lower these nests according to the variation of the temperature of the weather of the summer or winter season. These insects are nocturnal in their habits, and only issue from their burrows at night, when they also sometimes take the wing, and, like other nocturnal insects, are attracted by the light of a fire, a lamp, or a candle. Grated carrots, mixed with arsenic, and strewed in localities where they abound, is said to be a good remedy for their destruction, for they eat immoderately of this root.

Figure 14 is a singular insect, of the same natural order, and nearly allied to the mole cricket, from California, where they are found in great abundance.  I know nothing positively about its habits, it having been sent to me by a friend from the valley of the Sacramento, without note or comment, but it may be inferred from the large pro thorax, and the large anterior legs, terminated by a hand, similar to that of the mole cricket, that this insect is also a burrower in its habits. The insect alluded to is full two inches in length, of a light brown color, entirely without wings, smooth all over, and with long filliform antennæe.  The head is very large, the eyes projecting, near, and immediately behind the base of the antennæe; the jaws or mandibles are dark brown, short and stout, and the palpi are long and four-jointed, including a very short terminal joint.  The posterior and intermediate legs are proportioned very much also like those of the mole cricket, except that the spines along the posterior margin and the terminus of the tibia are more numerous and larger than those of the insect just named. The abdomen is large and composed of eleven segments, including the caudal one, which is terminated, like in most crickets, with a pair of hairy spines or setæ, except that they are shorter and more robust.

These insects present forms for the ready recognition of the husbandman, that are as essential to him, in a practical sense, as the fullest knowledge of their history and habits can possibly be; for of what avail is it to know that an insect does certain damages, if he is unable to recognize the perpetrator of those damages when he discovers it under other circumstances? Moreover, the external anatomical structure of an insect is often fearfully indicative of its specific character; for if the large posterior legs of an insect teach us that they are necessary to contain the muscular power required for leaping, so, also, the large anterior legs must speak a corresponding language, and inform us that they are required in one modification of form to dig and destroy, and in another to seize, to hold, and to devour.

The second kind of crickets to be considered are the field and house crickets, of which there are a number of species. Of the house crickets Dr. Harris has said that we have none in this country, which Mr. Uhler, in an editorial note to the Doctor’s work on insects, says is a mistake, so far as other localities than Massachusetts are concerned. For myself, I have often seen and heard the “cricket of the hearth” in middle and southern Pennsylvania, from my boyhood up to the present, or at least until a not very remote time, in houses that were favorable for their local habitation. These may have been field crickets, drawn thither by the approach of autumn and winter; but I recollect distinctly of having heard them as late as the end of December, in the State of Kentucky. These insects do not confine themselves entirely to vegetable food, and accordingly, it is recorded of the house cricket that it destroys any cockroaches or other insects that may trespass upon the premises which it occupies, During the greaen’c season I have on various occasions observed two or three species of field crickets preying upon the dead carcases of field mice, and other recently slain animal matter, in company with several species of “burying-beetles,” (Necrophorus.) They seemed to be perfectly intoxicated with their repast, and were altogether regardless of my approaches, and thus entirely different {rom what they usually are when found upon vegetation in the open fields. Crickets also attack other insects sometimes, and occupy cavities in the earth, under stones, from whence they pounce upon any luckless intruder that may come in their way; but for the most part they live upon vegetation, and sometimes are very destructive. Crickets deposit their eggs in holes in the earth, where they remain all winter, and are hatched out by the warm sun of the following spring and summer, after which the larger number of the adult insects die; but, as some of them do survive the winter, hiding themselves under timbers and stones, in nicely formed burrows, secure and dry, the inference is, that these, at least, deposit their eggs in the spring, as soon as vegetation is sufficiently advanced to sustain their young, when they are hatched. In localities where crickets may have been injurious to vegetation, it would be well to destroy all of those that are found in the winter season, as the probable progenitors of the vast multitudes which are met with on every hand during the summer.  These insects may be poisoned in the same manner as mole crickets are, for they seem also to be fond of carrots and other roots of a similar nature.  It may be of some importance to the farmer and gardener to know that the ereaking chirp of the cricket is not a vocal sound, but that it belongs exclusively to the male insect, and is produced by the grating together of the wing-covers of that sex. Figure 15 represents our common black field cricket, (Acheta abbreviata,) so called from the abbreviation or shortness of its wings, which do not cover the abdomen. This insect is about three-quarters of an inch in length, and is entirely black, except the base of the wing-covers, and a line on each side above the deflexion of the border, in the females, which is a pale brown. The females are provided with a long ovipositor, with which they deposit their eggs in the ground. This insect hides itself under stones and timbers, and when they are overturned the insects scamper off in various directions in a great hurry and in seeming distress, sometimes satisfied if they can only hide their heads under any small object, whilst the other portion of the body may be exposed to view; in this respect bearing some resemblance to the habits of the earwigs and other nocturnal or darkling insects.  Figure 16, (Acheta vittata,) or the striped cricket, is by far the most numerous and most social insect we have belonging to this order. They do not avoid the daylight, as other species do, but seem rather to court it, and may be scen at any time in countless numbers, in fields and along paths or roadsides. On a recent visit to the country, on a warm day in November, I found thousands of these insects feasting upon the dead carcase of a calf that had not yet become putrid, and from which they could not be driven without repeated efforts. This insect is much smaller than the black cricket described, being only about three-tenths of an inch long, aad being without the under wings which are present in other species. There is considerable variation in the color of these insects, from a dusky brown to a rusty black. There is a black line on each side of the thorax longitudinally, and also three lines on the head; in the darker varieties these lines are not so conspicuous as in the lighter ones.  From the immense numbers of them which are met with in seasons favorable to their increase, and from the fact that they are constant, greedy feeders from the time they are excluded from the egg in the spring until they are overtaken by the cold of the late autumn and early winter, it must needs be that they can become very destructive to vegetation, and therefore ought to be, destroyed. As they are voracious, indiscriminate feeders, they could easily be destroyed by placing poisoned meat or vegetables in the places which we desire to be protected against their ravages.

A third kind of crickets, which are pretty generally diffused throughout our whole country, are the climbing crickets, although they do not occur so abundantly as the kinds just noticed. Of these there are also several species, but the most common in the latitude of southern Pennsylvania is the Œcanthus niveus; figures 17, the male, and figure 18, the female. The sexes differ so widely from each other in form that they might very readily be taken for two distinct species. From midsummer until autumn these insects may be found on shrubbery and other vegetation, into the tender stems of which the females make perforations and deposit their eggs, which are hatched about the middle of July, and the young then feed upon the tender leaves. The male insect of this species is of a uniform white color, slightly tinged with green, except an ochery-yellowness of the front of the head, between the eyes, and the first joint of the antennæ. The legs and antennæ are long and delicately formed.  From the head to the end of the wing-covers, which lie flat upon the back, the insect is about three-quarters of an inch in length, but the body is scarcely half an inch long. The female is larger than the male, but the wing-covers are much narrower, and in many cases the color is much darker, varying from a pale or greenish white to a yellowish or dusky brown. On the head and thorax are three dusky stripes.  These insects have been charged with piercing and depositing their eggs in the peach tree, and with eating holes in the tobacco plant. I have frequently found them on grape vines, the leaves of which were perforated with holes, and although there are a number of other insects that are known to be destructive to the foliage and fruit of the grape vine, yet there is strong circumstantial evidence, if not positive proof, against this insect, as being also a depredator upon the vine.

The “climbing crickets” keep themselves hid during the day among the foliage and flowers of plants and shrubbery, and are then perfectly noiseless; but as night approaches they come forth, when the male commences his incessant shrill chirping notes, which are produced by the rubbing together of the upper wings, as in other crickets, which he continues until the approach of morning warns him to desist, to the great annoyance of any luckless sleeper into whose chamber he may happen to introduce himself. This insect is capable of both flying and leaping, but its power to leap is very limited, as the slender structure of its limbs will show, and therefore it is usually found sitting crouched down to a leaf or a stem, or walking slowly over their surface, and accordingly it may be easily captured by the hand and destroyed. The foregoing illustrations and the accompanying descriptions may serve to impress upon the mind of the reader the forms of these insects alluded to.

The second division of the section Saltatoria or leaping insects, includes the Grasshoppers, of which there are various kinds, most of which are distinguished by their vegetable-green color, their slender limbs, and their long thread-like antennæ or horns. This division includes the "Katydids” and their immediate relatives, many of which bear more or less of a resemblance to that type. They do not leap much, but walk slowly over the surface of vegetation, and only take a short leap when disturbed; at least this is the case with the young before the wings are fully developed; but some of the adult individuals are capable of a long and rapid flight, of which they frequently avail themselves when they are disturbed in warm weather; but they are easily rendered inactive by cold, and consequently the first cool evenings at the end of summer or the approach of autumn renders the Katydid and its congeners almost entirely helpless and very easy to capture. Fig. 19 represents a female Katydid of Pennsylvania, (Platyphyllum perspicillatum, Fab.,) and Fig. 20, exhibits the eggs. This insect is about two inches in length, of a bright green color, and the ovipositor of the female, which is sword-shaped, extends about the eighth of an inch beyond the wing-covers. Although its song is well known throughout the States, yet many who have heard it are altogether unable to recognize the insect when they see it, as there are one or two other insects of this family which nearly resemble it in size, color, and form. In the true Katydid the wing-covers are broader and shorter, and also more convexed, than in any other species allied to it, and the head and thorax are also proportionately larger. These insects reach their mature state by the end of August or the first of September, when the female lays her eggs in two rows, overlapping each other. on the twigs or small branches of shrubbery and of trees.

There is another grasshopper of about the same size and the same color, and also of habits similar to the Katydid, which is yet quite different in its structure and the proportions of its parts, and does not make the same distinct Katydid” pronunciation in its song. This insect is the Phylloptera oblongifolia, in which the wing-covers are narrower than in the former species, and are about a quarter of an inch shorter than the wings, which extend beyond the ovipositor of the female. The posterior legs are also longer, and the anterior and intermediate legs are shorter and more delicately formed than those of the true Katydid. This insect lays its eggs also on small branches in double rows of eight or nine each, like the former, to which they bear a very close resemblance. Another species of the same green color, but of much longer and narrower wings and wing-covers, and shorter body, is the Phaneroptera eurvicauda, illustrated by Fig. 21. But by far the most numerous species—and which is sometimes very abundantly found in meadow-lands upon the grass—is a small light green grasshopper, with a brown stripe on the top of the head, and the wing- covers tapering to the end, of a green color faintly tinged with brown along that portion which overlaps each other. The ovipositor is cimeter-shaped and the antennæ are long and thread-like, as in the other grasshoppers named.  This is the Orchelimum vulgare of Dr. Harris. A commoner species in this locality is the Orchelimum gracile, illustrated by Fig. 22, and measuring about three quarters of an inch in length. A distinguishing characteristic of the true “Grasshoppers” is, that they have very long and filliform antennæ, differing from the crickets—which have also long and thin antennæ—in the deflexion of the wing-covers, in their color, in the absence of the two caudal filaments, in the sword-shaped ovipositor, and in the length and slenderness of their limbs.  Some of these latter species named are very active “leapers,” and in warm days are exceedingly hard to capture.

There are numbers of other species that cannot be noticed in a limited paper upon this subject, but which all bear a general resemblance to those named and figured, and also approach them in their economies, their habits, and their modes of propagation. [t may be of some importance to mention here that the “Katydid™ and its immediate relatives do not deposit their eggs in the ground, as has been asserted, but on small twigs and branches, as before stated. Indeed, the habits and economy of the insect seem to contradict such a theory altogether, for it is nearly always found feeding and climbing aloft on shrubbery and trees, and very rarely upon succulent vegetation. Fortunately for us in the States, these insects are usually the most numerous and voracious about midsummer or after that period, when vegetation has gotten too much of a stark to be much injured by them, unless they appear in greater numbers than they ever have appeared heretofore. Their numbers might be greatly diminished if trees and shrubs were examined during the fall, winter, or spring, while they are destitute of foliage, for then the eggs can be readily seen, gathered, and destroyed. The difficulty of poisoning these insects would naturally be much greater than that of crickets, for the reason that their whereabouts is not so accessible.  Sweeping over the foliage and grass with a sort of bag-net, in the morning early, when these insects are not as active as they are at midday would capture a great many of them, which might be scalded and then fed to pigs and poultry, as they are very fond of them. The injuries done to vegetation are so great, and the injurious species so numerous, that the horticulturist and farmer cannot learn too soon to recognize noxious insects and distinguish between them and innoxious species, because those that are comparatively harmless now, may, in a few years, by their increased numbers, become very destructive.

Another division or family of the Saltatorial orthoptera is that which includes the Locusts, the most voracious and destructive insects belonging to this or any other order; but more destructive in foreign countries than they have been, thus far, in the United States. In speaking of these orthopterous insects by that name it is hardly necessary to admonish the reader that I do not, even the most remotely, allude to those insects which have incorrectly received the name of locusts in the United States—but which belong to an entirely distinct order of insects—such, for instance, as the “Summer locust,” the “Seventeen-year locust,” &c.  In no other country has a similar blunder been made in the vulgar nomenclature of this insect, and the correction may as well be made first as last. It will be seen in the course of these papers how far these names may be properly applied to these insects. and the benefits resulting from a proper application of names. Our locusts agree in their forms, their habits, their economies, and their modes of propagation, with the locusts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and especially with the Egyptian locust, of whose destructive qualities we read in Holy Writ and elsewhere. If priority of nomenclature is entitled to precedence in speaking and writing of any object of natural history, it is the same whether the name is a common or a technical one; and when we know that an insect indigenous to our own country has the form of one belonging to a foreign country, and also agrees with it in all other respects, then, in common language at least, it ought to be called by the same name, where a name has been previously given. This is precisely the case with & family of our “Grasshoppers —so called without distinguishing between them and the true Grasshoppers—but which are locusts in all the essentials which constitute that family of destructive insects.  This also clearly illustrates the necessity of the scientific names of animals, else we could not be generally understood when speaking or writing of any animal by the common names which it may have received in the various localities where it exists.

These insects differ from the crickets and the grasshoppers by having the antennæ short and of equal thickness; by the abrupt deflexion or roof-shape of their wing-covers, which entirely cover the lower wings; by the females not having the sword-shaped ovipositor protruding from the end of the abdomen; and by having the legs shorter and more robust, and therefore better adapted to leaping than the true grasshoppers; and by having the power of flight also much greater than the last-named insect, the wings being in most cases very large, the wing-covers narrow, and the muscular power of the thorax much developed. These insects, when occurring in large numbers, make a great noise in their flight, the cause of which is not easily explained.  Some species, when fully developed, which is usually about the end of August, are in the habit of poising themselves in the air, making a curious rickety noise, seeming to be trying their powers of flight, and perfectly intoxicated with delight at its efficiency. Asia and Africa, particularly, have suffered greatly at different times from the ravages of locusts, and the ground over which they have passed has presented the appearance of having been scorched by fire, so completely has the vegetation thereon been removed, and hence we have the name locust, which is derived from the Latin locus and ustus, which means “a burnt place.” Famine and great distress, as well as pestilent diseases, have followed the appearance of the locusts in those countries, and consequently all that has been written in the Scriptures concerning these insects has been fully confirmed by the observations and experiences of travellers and others in those countries where they abound. In Central and South America, in Mexico, as well as in some of our Pacific States, allied species of these insects have often occurred in vast numbers, and not much less destructive than those of Asia and Africa—and especially has this been the case in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. Smaller species have at various times abounded in the eastern, the western, the middle, and the southern States, which have been more or less destructive to the blades of young corn, to meadow grasses, and, in short, to almost every vegetable of an edible character where they existed.

Locusts are usually comprised under three generic divisions, all of which are in a greater or less degree destructive, but still sufficiently unlike to warrant such a separation of species, when arranging them systematically. They are :80 well known under the common but miscalled name of grasshoppers, that it is perhaps necessary in this place to do little else than just to give a few illustrations and a passing notice of some of them. The family is so large, when we take all the species together that inhabit the different parts of the world, that it has been necessary to divide them into a larger number of genera, but three may comprise those that are usually found in the old States.

The first of these is the genus Acrydium, in which the wing-covers are of only ordinary dimensions; and they have a spine projecting from the middle of the breast below; they have also small projecting cushions between the claws of the feet. The second genus is Locusta, the type of the family; without the spine in the middle of the breast; with the wings and wing-covers of ordinary size, but still, as a general thing, more ample than in the former genus, and also with the foot-cushions between the claws or nails.

The third genus is that of Tetrix, with the thorax much prolonged, covering the whole of the abdomen, and tapering to a point; the wing-covers are very small, and the insects are without the spine in the breast also; the forepart of the thorax forms a sort of projection, in the form of a stock, to receive the head; no cushions on the feet. Of the spine-breasted locusts (Acrydia) there are a number of species that are properly referred to other genera, as, for instance, Opsomala, Xiphicera, and Romalea; but it will only be necessary in this place to illustrate one or two of those before named. Fig. 23 represents the most common and most numerous, and therefore, perhaps, also the most destructive species that we have in this locality; it is the Acrydium (Caloptenus) femur-rubrum, and on several occasions has been a perfect scourge in various parts of our country, especially in the State of Maryland, and, according to, Dr. Harris, on the salt marshes of Massachusetts. In the months of August and September, 1839, they were exceedingly numerous and destructive in Lancaster county and other parts of Pennsylvania, eating up all kinds of vegetation, even to the loose particles upon the surface of old rails and boards, and rising in clouds high up in the air, filling it as far as the eye could reach, to the partial obstruction of the rays of the sun. There were also other species, especially the A. flavo-vittatum, a greenish or olive-colored kind, of about an inch and a half in length; but the red-legged locust predominates in numbers and destructiveness by great odds. This insect is from three-quarters to one and a quarter inch in length, and the wings expand about. the same. The color is a dirty olive of lighter and darker shades, and there are two long black spots extending from the eyes along the sides of the thorax; the hindmost thighs have two large spots on the upper side, and the extremity is black, but they are red below and yellow on the inside. The hindmost shanks and the feet are blood red, from whence the insect derives its name, including the red upon its thighs.

Fig. 24 is Acrydium alutaceum, a large, leather-colored locust, very extensively abounding in the locality of southern Pennsylvania for the past five years, and seemingly on the increase. Some specimens of this insect are fully two inches in length from the head to the end of the wing-covers and abdomen, and expand about three and a quarter inches across the wings; the color is a dirty brownish yellow, or like uncolored leather; the antenna are short in proporfion to the size of the insect, and the abdomen has transversed rows of lack dots upon it; the shanks or tibia are armed with numerous yellowish spines tipped with black. It has not usually occurred in such vast numbers as the “red-legged locust” first described, but, being much larger, should it become as numerous as the other, it certainly would be capable of doing more injury. By far the largest species, however, known to me as inhabiting the latitudes of Pennsylyania is the insect represented by Figs. 25 and 25a, (Acrydium Americanum?) which measures, from the front of the head to the end of the wing-covers, nearly two inches and three-quarters, and to the end of the abdomen nearly two inches and a half, and it expands across the wing-covers about five inches, the species varying more or less from these measures according to local circumstances; the wings are transparent, colorless, and large, forming fully a quarter of a circle, and the wing-covers are narrow, and ornamented with roundish and oblong brownish spots on a yellowish ground, with narrow stripe along the posterior margin without spots, which, when closed over the back of the insect, leaves a distinct yellowish line, which unites with one that runs longitudinally from the front of the head to the hind margin of the thorax, and terminates in a point near the end of the wing-covers. The thighs have a very distinct fern-leaf ornamentation on the outside, with two black blotches on the top, and a black spot inside and outside near the end, with a whitish pearly spot immediately below them; the shanks or tibia are reddish, and armed with numerous spines tipped with black. I have never seen a description of this insect, nor yet a minute description of the Americanum, and therefore it has occurred to me that it may be a different species from the insect of that name found in the south; on this account I have marked it with a doubt. In its general form and proportions it nearly resembles the A. alutaceum, but it is much larger, differently colored, and the longitudinal dorsal ridge of the thorax is not so prominent as in this last-named insect. Seven years ago it was not common in Lancaster county, and during a long residence in the western part of the county, where I devoted more time to the exploration of its woods, hills, and fields, in one month, than I have since been able“to devote in a whole year, I had never observed a single specimen of this insect; but now it is becoming every year more abundant and consequently more common. A great and unexpected increase of its numbers would, no doubt, prove it to be as much of a destroyer as those Central American species are, or even the famous migrating species of eastern countries. This insect, having very large wings, is capable of a very rapid and continued flight, and is therefore capable, also, of vastly extending the area of its habitation. The question of its destructiveness is simply one of time and of numbers, and a favorable opportunity for its rapid multiplication may occur at any season, when all the circumstances calculated to produce such an effect shall have combined together.

With this insect I will proceed to notice two or three of the genus Locusta, or locusts proper, which are none the less destructive, although they may not attain the sizes of some of those which have been already named.

In speaking of the locusts proper, it may be well to remark that we have probably not a single species, in the old States, at least, that may properly belong to the restricted genus Locusta, for all, or nearly all, of them seem to have been referred to different genera. It would be fortunate if the insects themselves could be so easily shifted, for then we would only need to transfer them to the bottom of the ocean to put an end to them. The name Locusta has been applied to that genus of orthopterous insects which includes the celebrated migrating locust of the east, the Gryllus Locusta migratoria of Linnæus, to which it is not necessary to make any more than this slight allusion in this place, and that only for the purpose of exhibiting how nearly allied, in their characters and forms, some of our own insects are to those destructive hordes which have been, from very ancient times, considered one of the great plagues of mankind. It does seem of sufficient importance, for the farmers and fruit-growers of our country, to impress upon their minds the forms and characters of these insects as those of the true locust—an insect which is capable of a fearfully rapid increase, and where so increased possessing a voraciousness which continues from, the time it is expelled from the egg, in the spring or early summer, until it is overtaken by the frosts of autumn, and under favorable circumstances one generation succeeding another in the same season. That they possess, also, ample powers of flight, enabling them to migrate from one district which they may have devastated to another that may promise a fresh and more abundant repast, and that their masticatory organs, for insects of their size, are as formidable as the most ravenous that belongs to the domain of nature. This is not the case with an insect of a different order, and of a different organization and form, which has incorrectly received the name of “locust” in this country.  This insect only appears at long intervals, only remains for a limited period, and is entirely without masticatory organs, and is not absolutely known to take any food at all while it remains with us. Whether the hushandmen of our country can ever accustom themselves to think of and regard the insects commonly called by them "grasshoppers” as possessing all the possibilities to become as destructive as the real African or Asiatic locust, and whether they can accustom themselves to regard the advent of the seventeen-year Cicada with indifference, or with that absence of superstitious dread which, in some localities, attaches to it, remains to be seen; but in any event, whether the proper names are applied to one or to both of these insects or not, it cannot affect their general characters, and an acquaintance with their characters is the great desideratum of the day.

The genus Locusta differs from that of Acrydium, mainly in being destitute of the little projecting spine upon the breast, immediately between the anterior pair of legs. The largest and most numerous species by far that is known to this locality is the very familiar Locusta Carolina of our roadsides and fields, from the middle of July to the end of the season. This insect is represented by Figs. 26 and 26a, and-is about an inch and a half in length, of a pale yellowish-brown color, with small dusky spots. The under wings are a bluish black, with a broad yellow posterior margin, with dusky spots near the outer ends.  The males and females pair in the months of September and October, according to the favorable or unfavorable state of the season, after which the female immediately proceeds to deposit her eggs in the ground, which she accomplishes by inserting the end of her abdomen and distending the four little ovipositor-like instruments with which it is provided, making a gmooth cylindrical hole, where the eggs remain all winter, and are hatched out in the spring.  These locusts are found in association with various other genera and species, the most numerous of which is the “red-legged" locust before mentioned.  When their wings are fully developed, they make ample use of them in their flight, only using their hind legs as propellers in rising from the ground.

The next species, in point of numbers, is the yellow-winged locust— Locusta sulphurea—represented by Fig. 27. This insect is about one inch and a quarter in length, and expands about two inches; the color is a dusky brown, and the thorax is raised slightly into a keel into the middle; the under wings are a deep yellow, with a broad dusky posterior margin, very much widened at the ends. This insect, some years ago, was not so common in this latitude as it is now, nor is it uniformly as common every season as the Carolina is.

There is also a number of smaller species of locusts, with the wings much shorter than those species already named, one of which is the Locusta ( Chloëaltis) curtipennis, Fig. 28, which is from a half to three-quarters of an inch in length, of a grayish color above, variegated with black, and the legs and the under side of the body yellowish: a broad black line extends from behind the eyes on each side along the thorax; the wing-covers of the male are nearly as long as the abdomen, in some specimens quite as long, but in the females they are short, not covering more than two-thirds of it. If I had not often taken these insects paired, I should have supposed the females were only immature specimens. Besides these there is a number of other species, all bearing a general resemblance to the foregoing in their forms and habits; but as these insects are so very common in all localities, it is not the design of this paper to give a detailed description of them, the object being merely to direct the attention of those interested to the forms and economies of a class of insects, which it must be to their advantage to have diminished in numbers, if they desire to enjoy an immunity from their rapacity. It is to the indifference to the increase of the denizens of the insect world, and the ignorance of the mode and manner of their reproduction, and the times and seasons in which they are most destructive, that many of the evils which we suffer from them may be attributed.

Before concluding the descriptive part of this paper I must avail myself of the opportunity of noticing one more species of locust belonging to a group called, in common language, the "Grouse Locusts,” on account of their generic name Tetrix having been applied by the Greeks to a species of Grouse. These insects in this locality are more frequently found along the borders of woodland among the grass—but basking themselves in the sun in some proportionately elevated position—than elsewhere. They possess extraordinary leaping powers, in which they are also assisted by an ample pair of wings. The most striking distinguishing characteristic of these insects is the peculiar formation of the thorax, which is prolonged behind to a point, and is extended beyond the abdomen, and in some instances beyond the wings. The heads, also, of the insects belonging to this genus are much smaller than those that belong to the genera Aerydium and Locusta.  The most common species in Pennsylvania is Tetrix lateralis, or black-sided Grouse Locust, (Fig. 29,) which is about half an inch in length from the front of head to the end of the wings.  The sides of the body are blackish, and the top of the thorax is sometimes an ashen, and sometimes a yellowish clay color. A slightly elevated ridge runs longitudinally through the centre of the thorax from the head to the hinder extremity. Although a quarter of an inch is the maximum length of these insects, yet from the close resemblance of their habits to those of the other members of the locust family, the inference is that they may become quite as destructive where their numbers are equal. The young, before they have acquired their wings, bear a strong resemblance to the young of the genus Membracis, which belongs to the order Flomoptera, and in this respect may be regarded as the connecting link between the Orthoptera and Hemiptera. In both of these genera—that is, in Tetrix and Membracis—the thorax extends in a wedge-shaped or tapering point beyond the abdomen, and in both the leaping powers are extraordinarily developed, the advantages of which the young, in the absence of wings, can only avail themselves in moving from one place to another. Tetrix, however, is usually found upon terra firma, whilst Membracis seeks a more elevated field of operation among the leaves of shrubbery and small trees. Perhaps what has been said upon the subject of “Orthopterology” in this place may still be regarded as impractical and unsatisfactory without the addition of something in relation to the mode and manner of destroying the insects belonging to this order, or in some way arresting them in their works of spoliation. In that behalf most entomologists are at fault from the fact that they are not so favorably situated for testing the various remedies which have at various times been suggested as those persons are who have the greatest interest at stake, namely, agriculturists and fruit-growers. More attention of a practical character, however, is now given to the transformations and economies of insects by entomologists than formerly; and in this they are also much assisted by the intelligent observations of the cultivators of the soil.

In regard to remedial agents, the first to be observed are those that exist in the economy of nature itself, because nearly all animals are preyed upon by some other larger or smaller animals.  The earwigs, for instance, are preyed upon by a species of “cuckoo-fly,” an insect of the order Hymenoptera, which, in the routine of these papers, can only be alluded to in detail in a special article on that order. The cockroaches are also preyed upon by the “house cricket,” and by several species of Hymenoptera. The “leaf insects” or “walking sticks” being partial to the foliage of young trees, are preyed upon by the birds. The Mantis seems to be able to take care of itself, but in certain contingencies they are known to prey upon each other, which is rather unfortunate in insects that are so useful as they are in guarding vegetation from the encroachments of other insects. The crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts are preyed upon by poultry, birds, toads, lizards, and fishes; and the mole cricket is pursued underground by the common “Shrew Mole.” Poultry, especially turkeys, are very fond of locusts, and pursue them perseveringly in the fields until they overtake them. Besides the enemies named, these latter insects are also infested with a species of Acarus, or insects nearly allied to them.³  Some four or five years ago I noticed that very many of the "Spine-breasted Locusts” (Acrydium) were infested with small scarlet-colored parasites, (probably a species of Acarus,) which located themselves upon the abdomen around the base of the wings, preventing their development, and eventually destroying the insects themselves, of which I found hundreds clasped to any object that came in their way, and dead weeks before the approach of autumn.

But there are artificial means that have been at different times and in different localities resorted to for the destruction of these insects, especially the locusts and crickets. On the continent of Europe they sometimes hire children to gather the locusts and their eggs; and it is on record that in Marseilles alone, in 1825, six thousand two hundred francs were paid for destroying these insects and their eggs. It was said that an active boy could collect from thirteen to fifteen pounds of the eggs in one day.

A contrivance, operating on the principle of a “horse-rake,” has also been adopted both in Europe and some parts of the United States for the capture and destruction of these insects.  It is recorded in the “New England Farmer,” vol. v, page 5, that a Mr. Thompson, of Epsom, New Hampshire, caught in one evening, between the hours of eight and twelve, nearly six bushels of locusts in his own and his neighbors’ grain. fields. The mode of gathering and destroying the locusts by this operator was by fastening two sheets together, and attaching them to a long pole, extending beyond the width of the sheets, and allowing two persons to take hold on both sides, to draw it forward. At the sides of the drag two braces extended from the pole, to raise the back part of the sheets from the ground, forming a sort of a “bag,” as in a seine net, to prevent the escape of the insects. After running this drag rapidly over the ground, the braces were let down and the sheets doubled together, and the insects shook into the centre, where a secured opening was left, whence they were transferred to a bag, which, when filled, was emptied into scalding water, and thus they were destroyed.  These insects in bulk weigh nearly as heavy as the same bulk of corn, and, when boiled, were fed to poultry and swine, these animals manifesting the greatest fondness for them. In this connexion I may be permitted to state that a friend who returned from California informed me that locusts were pretty extensively used as food among the different tribes of Indians when other food became, scarce or failed; that the insects are deprived of their wings and feet, and then beaten into a thick batter and baked into a sort of cake, or perhaps more properly fried, for they contain considerable oil; and that these cakes are by no means unpalatable, even to more cultivated tastes. Might not these things be suggestive in an economical point of view? When the different species of crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts occur in overabundance, and are destroying the crops of our farmers, might they not be gathered and fed to those animals whose supply of food had been diminished by the presence of these destructive insects? In Africa, where the migratory locusts eat off the crops close to the very earth, they are captured in countless numbers, and furnish to the inhabitants a substitute for that food of which their presence has deprived them.

These insects mostly coming to maturity in the latter part of July, the wheat crop and the first grass crop generally escape their ravages altogether, but the second grass crop, the corn crop, and sometimes the oats and buckwheat, are. seriously injured by them. It has been suggested that if all crops that can be were gathered before these insects reach maturity, they would be starved for want of food, and therefore their full development and procreation for a future season would be in some measure prevented, but this preventive measure should be simultaneously adopted by all in the locality where these insects, for the time being, abound. In addition to the natural means already mentioned, it may afford some consolation to the farmers and fruit-growers of our country to reflect, that often when they are deploring the presence of continuous storms and heavy rains on account of the injuries their crops may sustain from the prevalence of these sanitary visitations, there are hundreds of thousands, yea millions, of locusts and other noxious insects swept from vegetation of all kinds, and carried into brooks, creeks, and rivers, where they become food for fishes. And if, in the common destruction, a few of the useful species are included, they can well afford to part with them on account of the diminished number of the others left behind.

Doubtless it has often been noticed by the most casual observer that locusts are most heedless and impulsive in their habits when they are approached by any living object, making tremendous leaps in all directions without any regard whatever as to where they may alight, whether in fire or water, or upon terra firma again.  When I was a boy I often amused myself by driving them into a stream just for the pleasure of seeing them devoured by the fishes, who would dart to the surface of the water to draw them under.  This may also be suggestive. On one occasion, when the “red-legged locust” occurred very numerously, a gentleman near Baltimore employed his servants in driving them from his premises with long withes or switches. Now if they were driven into streams of water, in all fields bordering on streams, or having streams running through them, it might be an efficient means of destroying many of them. It is true that a number of them might be expected to reach the land again by swimming, but this would not be the case where there was a rapid descending current in the streams. It is stated by travellers that along the African coast, in their migrations, the locusts continue in one direction, and that when they come to the land’s end they continue to fly on in the same direction, out into the ocean, whence they are thrown back dead upon the beach, in heaps of three or four feet in depth and for miles in length. Where fields are not margined or penetrated by streams, large fires might be kindled, and the insects be driven into them, and thus destroyed. Late fall ploughing would also turn many thousands of the eggs too deep under the soil ever to reach the surface again, and, so far, their hatching would be entirely prevented. Farmers, of course, are expected to adopt such remedies as are best adapted to their respective localities; for it must be apparent that what is applicable to one particular locality might be entirely impracticable in another differently circumstanced.

The foregoing descriptions and illustrations may present a general outline of the insects belonging to the order Orthoptera, and may enable the husbandman to recognize those with which he is not already familiarly acquainted, although the list of species comprises a very insignificant number of those included in this order of insects. The remedies, both natural and artificial, which have been merely suggested, may start the mind of the agriculturist in the right direction to discover and develope more perfect ones. Some attention to these things is absolutely necessary on the part of the tillers of the soil, if the great evils which have at various times been inflicted upon other countries are desired to be avoided, and the disproportionate increase of insect enemies prevented. This is the more essential when it is known that the insects belonging to this order go on producing one generation after another so long as the warm weather continues, and that they produce but one or two broods in certain latitudes is only because they are arrested by the intervention of an unfriendly climate, which, for the time being, stops their further progress and their increase.