To the teacher.—The moulting of the nymph is a very interesting process to observe and so is the laying of the eggs by the female in a burrow that she prepares in the soil. If females secured in July are kept in a jar having two inches of soil in the bottom, they will lay their eggs in the soil; the nests and eggs may then be taken up and examined.
In order that we may not destroy our friends and helpers, it is expedient to know what creatures help to hold pests in check.
The enemies of grasshoppers are birds and insect parasites. Under the wings of grasshoppers may frequently be found little red mites; these kill the grasshoppers to which they are attached. The blister-beetles lay their eggs in the grasshoppers' nests, and the larvæ of the beetles feed upon and destroy the eggs.
The birds that are especially useful in destroying grasshoppers are the meadow-lark, crow, bobolink, quail, grasshopper sparrow.
The curious hairlike worms known to the school boys as "hair snakes" because of the belief that they are parts of horse hairs turned into snakes, are worms that pass the early part of their life within the bodies of grasshoppers and, when the insects die, the worms escape and are washed by rains into troughs and ponds where their movements attract attention.
Study the cricket and house-fly and compare the cricket with the grasshopper.
APHIDES
In September obtain leaves of sweet-pea, apple, rose bush, maple, oak, turnip, etc., on which the insects are feeding; also provide specimens of woolly aphides on the bark of apple trees or stems of goldenrod or alder.
Observe the nature of the injury to the leaves and plants on which these insects feed.
Do the insects bite the leaves or suck the juices? Give evidence in support of your answer.