In the grasshopper the head is placed vertically; the slender antennae are longer than the body; there are hemispherical eyes, but rarely eye-spots; wings and wing-covers are generally present. The right (and occasionally also the left) wing-cover of the male bears a clear, round membrane stretched on a ring, which produces the well-known “chirp” when set in vibration.
The females have a long egg-positor. The eggs are laid by means of it either in the earth or in some dry stem. From these, in spring, larvæ are developed, which are virtually like the adults, but molt at least six times before they become full-grown.
Katydid, a name applied to numerous American insects, nearly related to grasshoppers. They frequent trees, shrubbery, and grass, and are well concealed in the foliage by their green color. In their general habit, e. g. in the song to which the syllables “kat-y-did” refer, and in the egg-laying accomplished by the long egg-positors of the female, these lively insects resemble grasshoppers.
Locusts (Acrididae) are large, ground-loving insects, of world-wide distribution, famous for their voracious vegetarian appetite. In size they vary from one-quarter inch to five inches in length. They have strong hind-legs with great leaping powers, large heads with formidable mouth-organs, shorter antennæ and robuster bodies than grasshoppers. Both winged and wingless forms occur, the former with strong powers of flight. The females have strong egg-positors by which they bore holes for their eggs. The numerous eggs are laid in holes drilled in the ground; the young when hatched generally resemble the parents except in the absence of wings. From the first they are gregarious, and excessively voracious except during their repeated molts; they devour all green things, and even one another, and are often forced by stress of hunger and excessive multiplication to migrate in great swarms.
Their ravages sometimes cause widespread famine and ruin. One of the most famous and destructive forms is the Rocky Mountain Locust (Caloptenus spretus); the most abundant migratory species of the East, so often mentioned in the Scriptures, is Pachytylus migratorius.
On the left is shown a Leaf Insect which, having given up the habit of flight, has yet retained its likeness to the leaves upon which it feeds to protect itself from its enemies. On the right is shown a grasshopper depositing her eggs in a nest under the ground. (See [above]).
ANTS, BEES AND WASPS (Hymenoptera)
These membrane-winged insects are the most intelligent of their kind. They are readily recognized by the presence of four transparent wings traversed by a comparatively small number of veins, the hinder ones being much smaller than the others, to which they are in many instances attached during flight by means of a row of minute hooks. The posterior end of the body in the female is commonly provided with a piercing apparatus, which may either serve for boring holes, in which eggs are laid, in which case it is called an “ovipositor,” or may have been modified into a poisoned sting, useful for offense and defense. The black and yellow or black and red bands of wasps and bees are “warning colors,” indicating their stinging powers.