Evening star., 1949-07-21
This and That
BIZ Charles Z. TrdceDeH

Inc graSSnOpper around mere Is >IlclO
curiosity, but out West he Is real menace,
as news stories from Nevada tell US. va.
This is the Rocky Mountain or migratory
locust. Short-horned grasshoppers are the
true locusts.
Hitherto its breeding place has been the
plains Of Colorado, Wyoming. Montana and
Idaho. ..-.. ,.
At one time. from 1874 to 1876. it migrated
to Kansas and Nebraska. and to Iowa and
Missouri.
At that time more than 5000, 900 900 worth
Of crops were destroyed.
Today the damage is far greater.
One writer then was very much mistaken
when he wrote:
THE Government appointed . special
commission to investigate them.
1T is not likely that there will ever
again be such a scourge OF locusts in this
country, for there is now more food in the
Rocky Mountain States and men are also
learning how to partially control them
The red-legged locust is much like the
terrible fellow of the West but has shorter
wings. This Is the most common grass
hopper, the one small boys used to tell to
spit tobacco juice"
Another common one Is the Carolina
locust the big light brown one that seemed
to prefer dusty country roads
It would fly up in ones face and then
drop down, and apparently disappear in the
road.
Katydids are long horned grasshoppers.
This is the one whose lusty music may
be heard for q long distance. at least .
fourth of a mile, and many OF them together
much farther.
The noise is made by rubbing the outer
wings together.
Whether or not it is the loudeSt sound
made by a creature of its size Is a question.
The male katydid Is the singer, If we
wish to call him so.
The female is silent No less poet than
Oliver Wendell Holmes, however. in trying
to be humorous. wrote:
Thou art female katydid.
I know it by the trill
That quivers through thy piercing notes.
So petulant and shrill!'
Not such bad poetry, perhaps, but poor
entomology.
The terrible migratory locusts, or grass
hoppers. produce their sounds by using the
wing cover as . violin and the bind leg
as q bow.
An Associated Press report from Reno
New, in telling how 5000 square miles had
been covered by these creatures, said that
the band Of hoppers was rs miles long and
40 miles deep, with an estimated so adults
to each square yard.
Moving only by daylight, the hoppers
sound like the roar Of distant waterfall
or the rumbling Of a fast freight" said
the A. p. -~-..
It is impossible to stand in the face Of
the onslaught without protecting the head
with ones arms.
In the band instanced were egg beds COW
ering more than 1885, 900 acres.
Such stories recall the warnings OF ento-
mologists that the insects finally would
conquer the world.
It is the number Of them. rather than
the individual ferocity, which might make
such thing possible. Insects are not all
terrible, silent things, but often, as in the
grasshoppers, give an impression rather OF
happiness in living. Certainly those who
will recall the 17-year locusts, really cicadas.
of 1884 will remember always the great
cascading roar of sound they made in near
by Maryland, particularly along Brookeville
road. Their little eyes looked out intelli-
gently enough, as they climbed the trees
into the sunlight after SO long in darkness.
The insect menace is one to be respectful
of, and surely must be fought II mankind
is to endure but man himself Is probably
greater enemy Of man than the grass
hoppers and others. Pope long ago said
that the proper study Of mankind is man:
man is the real enemy Of our species that
must be tanned human life ID to endure
a thS g3obo.