Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . t of our common grasshoppers, or locusts, hiber-nate in the egg state in the ground slightly beneath thesoil surface. There is at least one species,^ however,common in NewEngland, thatdeposits its eggsin soft bright Oc-tober day I hap-pened to comeacross a fencebeside a bit ofwoods, in theposts of whichthese locusts were busily laying their eggs. On the top of nearlyevery post was one or more of these busy creatureswith her abdomen thrust down into a crack or crevicewhere she was depositing he
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . t of our common grasshoppers, or locusts, hiber-nate in the egg state in the ground slightly beneath thesoil surface. There is at least one species,^ however,common in NewEngland, thatdeposits its eggsin soft bright Oc-tober day I hap-pened to comeacross a fencebeside a bit ofwoods, in theposts of whichthese locusts were busily laying their eggs. On the top of nearlyevery post was one or more of these busy creatureswith her abdomen thrust down into a crack or crevicewhere she was depositing her bunch of eggs. The posi-tion then assumed is well shown in Fio-ure 126, whichwas the only fairly successful result of several attemptsto photograph one of the insects while ovipositing, thefact that they move their bodies constantly up and downmaking the taking of the picture difficult. The shapeof the end of the abdomen in the female grasshoppers isshown in Figure 125; as will be seen it is pointed atthe end, a fact which easily distinguislies this sex from ^ Melaiioplus Fig. 125. — The Pine Locust, Female, slightly magnified. Nature Biographies. the smaller males, which have the end of the abdomenrounded (Fig. 124). This species appears to have be-come adapted to life in open pine woods; it is colouredin mossy grays and browns that help to conceal it whenupon the bark of trees or logs. These grasshopper eggs, whether laid in w^ood as withthe species illustrated, or in the ground as with most ofthe field species, remain unhatched until the followingspring. During this long period they are subject to at-tack from a hostof enemies, in-cluding birds,predaceous in-sects, and smallred mites thatfeed freely uponthe Qgg eggswhich are notdestroyed beforethe latter part of the following spring hatch into younghoppers that feed upon the tender foliage of grasses orother plants. These common grasshoppers belong to the familyAcrididae. They are chiefly di
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
