GRASSHOPPER, in zoology, a species of GRYL-LUS. This insect breeds in such plenty in our meadows, that it is known to every body. It is of the colour of green leaves, except a line of brown which streaks the back, and two pale lines under the belly and behind the legs. It may be divided into the head, the corset, and the belly. The head is oblong, regarding the earth, and bearing some resemblance to that of a horse. Its mouth is covered by a kind of round buckler, jutting over it, and armed with teeth of a brown colour, hooked at the points. Within the mouth is perceivable a large reddish tongue, and fixed to the upper jaw. The antennæ are very long, tapering off to a point; and the eyes are like two black specks, a little prominent. The corset is elevated, narrow, armed above and below by two serrated spines. The back is armed with a strong buckler, to which the muscles of the legs are firmly bound; and round these muscles are seen the vessels by which the animal breathes, as white as snow. The last pair of legs are much longer and stronger than the first two pair; fortified by thick muscles, and well formed for leaping. It has four wings; the anterior ones springing from the second pair of legs, the posterior from the third pair. The hinder wings are much finer and more expansive than the foremost, and are the principal instruments of its flight. The belly is considerably large, composed of eight rings, and terminated by a forked tail, covered with down, like the tail of a rat. When examined internally, besides the gullet, we discover a small stomach; and behind that, a very large one, wrinkled and furrowed within-side. Lower down, there is still a third: so that it is thought, and with some probability, that all the animals of this order chew the cud; as they so much resemble ruminant animals in their internal conformation.
A short time after the grasshopper assumes its wings, it fills the meadows with its note; which, like that among birds, is a call to courtship. The male only of this tribe is vocal; and, upon examining at the base of the wings, there will be found a little hole in its body, covered with a fine transparent membrane. This is thought, by Linnæus, to be the instrument it employs in singing; but others are of opinion the sound is produced by rubbing its hinder legs against each other. But, however this may be, the note of one male is seldom heard, without being returned by another; and the two little animals, after many mutual insults of this kind, are seen to meet and fight desperately. The female is generally the reward of the victory; for, after the combat, the victor seizes her with his teeth behind the neck, and thus keeps her for several hours, till the business of fecundation is accomplished. At this time they are so strongly united, that it is almost impossible to separate them, without tearing their bodies asunder. Towards the latter end of autumn,
Grass-hopper. the female prepares to deposit her burthen; and her body is then seen greatly distended with eggs, which she carries to the number of 150. In order to make a proper lodgment in the earth for them, nature has furnished her with an instrument in her tail, somewhat resembling a two-edged sword, which she can sheath and unsheath at pleasure: with this she pierces the earth as deep as she is able; and into the hole which the instrument has made, she deposits her eggs one after the other.
Having thus provided for the continuation of her posterity, the animal herself does not long survive; but, as winter approaches, she dries up, seems to feel the effect of age, and dies from a total decay. Some, however, assert that she is killed by the cold; others, that she is eaten by worms: but certain it is, that neither male nor female are ever seen to survive the winter. In the mean time, the eggs which have been deposited, continue unaltered either by the severity of the season, or the retardation of the spring. They are of an oval figure, white, and of the consistency of horn: their size nearly equals that of a grain of anise: they are enveloped in the body within a covering branched all over with veins and arteries: and when excluded, they crack on being pressed between the fingers. Their substance within, is a whitish, viscous, and transparent fluid. In this manner they remain deposited within the surface of the earth during the whole winter, till the return of spring begins to hatch them. About the beginning of May, each egg produces an insect about the bigness of a flea. These are at first of a whitish colour; at the end of two or three days they turn black, and soon after they become of a reddish brown. They appear from the beginning like grasshoppers wanting wings, and hop among the grass, as soon as excluded, with great agility. Yet still they are by no means arrived at their full state of perfection; although they bear a strong resemblance to the animal in its perfect form. They want, or seem to want, the wings which they at last assume; and can only hop among the grass, without being able to fly. The wings, however, are not wanting, but are concealed within four little bunches that seem to deform the sides of the animal. There they lie rolled up in a most curious manner, and occupying a smaller space than one could conceive who saw them extended. These wings, however, it has never been destitute of; though they remain folded up for 20 days, so that they cannot be seen. When it is to undergo this change, the animal ceases from its grassy food, and seeks about for a convenient place beneath some thorn or thistle that may protect it from an accidental shower. It swells up its head and neck, and then draws them in again; and thus alternately for some time it endeavours to get free. At length, the skin covering the head and breast divides above the neck, and the head issues forth. The other parts follow successively: so that the little animal, with its long feelers, legs, &c. works its way from the old skin, which remains fixed to the thistle or thorn. It is indeed inconceivable how the insect can extricate itself from such an exact sheath as that which covered every part of its body.
The grasshopper, thus disengaged from its outer skin, appears in its perfect form; but is then so feeble,
and its body so soft and tender, that it may be moulded like wax. It is no longer of the obscure colour it had before; but is of a greenish white, which becomes more vivid, as the moisture on the surface is dried away. Still, however, the animal continues to shew no signs of life; but appears quite spent and fatigued with its labour for more than an hour together. During this time the body is drying, and the wings unfolding to their greatest expansion; and the curious observer will perceive them, fold after fold, opening to the sun, till at last they become longer than the two hinder legs. The insect's body also is lengthened during this operation, and it becomes much more beautiful than before.
These insects are generally vocal in the midst of summer; and they are heard at sunset much louder than during the heats of the day. They are fed upon grass; and if their belly be pressed, they will be seen to return to the juices of the plants they have last fed upon. Though unwilling to fly, and slow of flight, particularly when the weather is moist or cool, they are sometimes seen to fly to considerable distances. If they are caught by one of the hinder legs, they quickly disengage themselves from it, and leave the leg behind them. This, however, doth not grow again, as with crabs and spiders; for as they are animals of but a single year's continuance, they have not sufficient time for repairing these misfortunes. The loss of their leg also prevents them from flying; for being unable to lift themselves in the air, they have not room upon the ground for the proper expansion of their wings. If they be handled roughly, they will bite very fiercely; and, when they fly, they make a noise with their wings. They generally keep in the plain, where the grass is luxuriant, and the ground rich and fertile: there they deposit their eggs, particularly in those cracks which are formed by the heat of the sun.
These animals are sometimes very mischievous, by reason of their great numbers. Some time ago they appeared in Languedoc, and other places of France, in very formidable swarms, and eat up all the harvest of several years. They took their flight like birds, were about an inch long, of a grey colour, and exactly shaped like the common sort. They were found in many places covering the whole surface of the earth, four or five inches deep, and used to lie quiet towards noon; but when the sun then shone warmly upon them, they used to arise and take wing, and, setting on the corn-fields, they would in a few hours eat up the whole produce, ears, leaves, and even the more tender parts of the stalks.—When they had destroyed one field in this manner, they used to take wing and fly to another. They usually flew very high in the air, and directly against the wind; but as soon as they saw a new crop of corn, they dropped together in a swarm, and cleared it as they had done the first. This practice they continued the whole day; and towards evening they settled upon the ground, where they remained quiet till the heat of the following day raised them again. When they had destroyed all the corn in the country, they seized upon the vines, garden-herbs, and willows, and at last upon the hemp. Whole fields of this last they eat up, notwithstanding its great bitterness. Towards autumn, they
Gratarolas they left off feeding, and were then found in copulation; and soon after this, the females were every where seen laying their eggs, which they deposited in the ground, making a hole with their tail, large enough to receive a goose-quill.
In these holes every female would lay 40 or 50 eggs, each of the size of a millet-feed; and when they had finished the laying, they covered up the hole to keep out the water. After this they died apace; and the multitude of their carcasses stunk intolerably, poisoning the air. The next year they hatched in April: and from this one swarm such prodigious numbers were hatched, that 15 tons of them were destroyed while no bigger than flies, and nine tons of their eggs before the hatching; and yet there remained enough of them to destroy, in a great measure, the succeeding harvest. After this, they gradually decreased for several years, till they were not more numerous than elsewhere. This was attributed to the industry of the farmers in killing them; but it is more probable that unfavourable seasons destroyed them.