LOCUST (ante) and GRASSFIOPPER (ante) are here considered together beeauso of the confusion in the popular mind in regard to them. Their similarity in form and habits is considerable, and by some of the best authorities they are placed in one division under the name of grasshoppers, including two families, the acrididte and locustidte, the acrididte forming the family of locusts, while the locustidte form the family of grass hoppers. There has long been a popular error in regard to the identity of the locust, the idea having been very widely spread that a species of hemipterous insect, the seventeen-year cicada, allied to the dog-day harvest-fly, is the true locust. As classified by the U. S. entomological commission, probably the best authority for the general reader, the section of orthoptera called sanatoria is divided into three families, acrididte, locustidm, and gryllidm, the latter family including the crickets. The aerididue and locustidre form a subsection or group called grasshoppers, for the insects comprising both these families are really grasshoppers, and thc locust is quite as much of a grass hopper /19 any of the members of the other family; indeed, he may be regarded as the grasshopper par excellence. The pthicipal distinctions between the two families are given in the article LOCIIST, ante. See also CRICKET; CRASSIIOPPER; CICADA, ante. Both the old-world and new-world locusts belong to the family acrididm, but are in many cases of different genera. which. however, are said to shade off into one another, so that it is. difficult to tell in which group to place s( me of the members. Most of the old-world.
locusts belong to the genus pachytylus, the more devastating species being P. migratorius, but in south-western Europe the more common genus is caloptenus, the name of the Rocky-inountain genus; but the species is not the same. The locust of Algeria belongs to the genus acrydiunz, A. peregrinum. The old-world locusts are much larger than the Rocky-mountain locust, and probably a more formidable animal. More minute classifi cations are made, not needful here; as, for instance, the family acrididre, containing as it does a very large number of species varying considerably in form and character, has been again divided into three subfamilies, proseopince, aeridince, and tettigince, the acrididm iucludiuo. the migratory locusts. The Alps form a dividing barrier or partition to the two different genera of European migratory locusts. There are many species of acrydium genera spread over the world, but as the most of them do not have the multi plying and migratory power of the few species which are among the world's historical scourges, they are not popularly known as locusts, but passunder the name of grasshopper: many of them may be seen in various localities, hopping along the fences, roadsides, mown meadows, and pastures, arid can be distinguished by their much shorter antennie and more robust bodies. Most of the facts in this article in regard to locusts are taken from
the first annual "Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission for the year 1877, relat ino. to the Rocky mountain locust.'"This valuable work is the record of investintions chiefly by profs. C. V. Riley, A. S. Packard, and Cyrus Thomas. According to 06rorius, "in the year of the world 3,800 certain regious of n. Africa were visited by mon strous swarms; the wind blew theni into the sea, and the bodies washed ashore stank more than the corpses of a hundred thousand men.'" According to St. Augustine, another locust plague, causing famine and contagious diseases, occurred in Numidia, resulting in the death of 800,000 men. Pliny states that locusts came over in c,oreat swarms from Africa to Italy in his time. Great invasions of locusts have occurred in Germany: one in 1333, lasting till 1336; another in 1475; others in 1527, 1543, 1636, 1686, 1693-96, 1712-15, 1719, 1727, 1731-34, 1746, 1750-52, 1754, 1759-61, 1803, 1825, 1830, 1836-39 In 1873-74 small numbers appeared in swarms about Genshagen, near Berlin ; they laid their eggs, and in the middle of June, 1875, the larvm appeared in mil lions, becoming fledged in July. KOppen has published an elaborate memoir on the migratory locust of southern Russia, and comes to the conclusion that pachytylus migra Onus and P. cinerascens are only varieties of the same species, and that another genus, ceipoda, is the same also. The form which he met with as most abundant in southern Russia is the true paeltytylus nzigratorius. He describes minutely the development of the insect, the eggs of which are deposited in little nests of 60 to 100 together, surrounded by a membranous envelope. The eggs are laid in the autumn and hatched in the fol lowing spring. K6ppen says the larvse molt four tiines, the fourth molt producing the winged insect. The ego.s taken from the ground showed the eyes, antennte, segments, and leo.s of the larvm diainctly. A little while before hatchino. the larva might be seen o. 0 moving within the egg. He notices the caloptenus italieus, the congener of the American caloptenus spretus, as occurring in southern Russia. Other locusts which are occasionally devastating. are poehytylus strWulus, wdipoda devastator, stauronotus vastator, S. eruciatus, and pezotettix alpina.