The locusts of southern Russia are divided into two species ; the Russahi^ or Russians gri/Uns migratorins\ which are about an inch and a half, and the Saranni grijUus vastafor), which are about two inches long. Both are equally voracious and equally dreaded, and both are equally produced from eggs deposited in the earth in August and September, by means of a piercing tube or oviduct with which the female is provided. The animal does not, however, bore merely with its piercer, but thrusts its whole body into the ground, in order that the eggs may be deposited as deeply as possible. This depends, of course, partly upon the nature of the soil, which, when hard, often baffles the exertions of the insect, and compels it to leave its eggs to take their chance just below the surface. It has, however, been observed, that the locust, for the most part, looks out for a soft place, where she bores away industriously, till completely lost to sight, turning her whole body round all the time. When the hole has been bored as wide and to as great a depth as the animal's strength will allow, she deposits in it from fifty to seventy eggs. This operation generally occupies two or three entire days ; at the end of which, the mother of a future race of conquerors, exhausted by her labours, lies down and dies. If she has been able to make the hole large enough, she remains in it, covering her eggs with her decaying body. These eggs are wliite, and nearly of the same shape and size as those of ants, neatly arranged into a mass or nest by some white glutinous substance, and when taken out of the ground, they continue to adhere together. By placing the eggs in a glass, and subjecting them to a gentle degree of heat, they may very soon be hatched, when the baby-locusts Avill be seen creeping into a premature existence. In the nest under-ground matters go on more slowly. There the eggs continue throughout the autumn and winter, and it is not till the end of April or the beginning of May that the young locusts begin to creep out of their holes. If covered with a thin layer of snow, the eggs are seldom killed by the winter frost, even when covered only by an inch of earth ; but if the ground be ploughed up, and the eggs exposed, they are destroyed by the cold.
The first warm days of spring call the young locusts forth, and in a very short time they appear in incredible nuriibers. The millions of mothers that in autumn sunk under the load of their eggs, now start up sixty-fold into renewed life. They have no wings when first born, but their legs immediately acquire vigour, so that they are at once provided with the powers of locomotion. They immediately begin to eat, and a rich grassy plain, if they are undisturbed, will perhaps be eaten bare in a few days ; if disturbed, they commence their peregrinations forthwith, and the army seems to increase in number as it marches along. They go on rustling and crackling, and crawling over one another in heaps. They almost always proceed in a straight line, scarcely any object sufficing to impede their course. They climb over the roofs of the low houses, over fences and walls, march through the streets of towns and villages, not avoiding either man or beast, so that the wheels of a cart will at times sink several inches deep into a mass of locusts, while a pedestrian walking through them will often have them up above his ankle. Enormous quantities of them fall down into the ravines, and are carried away by the streams, which are sometimes so thickly covered with the black carcasses that the water is completely lost to sight. The march of these young locusts is more dreaded even than the flight of the old ones ; not liaving yet got their wings, they are not to be frightened away either by guns or drums ; and to attempt to destroy them were liopel?ss, on account of their numbers, a few hundred thousand, more or less, making but little difference. '^I'hcy are most greedy too wlien young, and as the grass and corn arc just then most tender, the devastation is the more difficult to repair. It is true that, while in this statje, their ravages are confined within narrower limits, on accouut of the slow rate at wliich they advance, an army of young locusts being seldom able to march more than two versts in a day.