ACRIDIIDAE 307 



The male has the rudimentary tegmina (Fig. 186,/) much longer 

 than they are in the female (Fig. 185), and their prolonged part 

 is deeply grooved, so as to give rise to strong ridges, over which 

 plays the edge of the denticulate and serrate femur. There is 

 nothing to correspond to this in the female, and friction over the 

 surface of this part of the male produces a different and louder 

 sound. There can be little doubt that this is a phonetic structure 

 peculiar to the male. It approximates in situation to the sound- 

 producing apparatus of the males of the Stenobothri and other 

 Acridiidae. Methone anderssoni has large tympanal organs : the 

 small tegmina cover them up completely. In the female the tips 

 of the tegmina seem to be adapted for forming covering - flaps 

 for the tympana. In both sexes there is a sac (Fig. 186, &) 

 adjoining the structures we have mentioned, but which is not 

 directly phonetic, though it may be an adjunct of the apparatus. 



There is no other Orthopteron in which the phonetic organs 

 are so complex as they are in the male of Methone anderssoni, 

 and it would appear probable that this Insect possesses the 

 power of producing two, if not more, distinct sounds, one in 

 common with the female, and peculiar to this and one or two 

 other species ; the other somewhat similar to that of other Acri- 

 diids, and more specially developed in the male, if not absolutely 

 confined to it. 



This Insect is of a very sedentary disposition, and when 

 disturbed apparently seeks safety rather by the noise it can make 

 than by flight. Its powers of locomotion indeed are very feeble. 

 The alar organs are quite rudimentary, and of no assistance what- 

 ever for movement. The hind legs seem to be almost equally 

 useless for this purpose ; they are broader than they are in other 

 Acridiidae, and have different functions. When Methone moves 

 it does so by means of the anterior four legs, on which it walks 

 propped up as if on stilts. When at rest the hind legs are pressed 

 close to the body, and the tibiae are inflexed and not seen, the 

 creature in this position greatly resembling a clod of earth. We 

 know nothing of the life history of this Insect, except that the 

 young resemble the adult in appearance, and are provided with 

 the sound-producing apparatus, or some portion thereof. 



The geographical distribution of the Eremobiens corresponds 

 with that of the Pamphagides, with two important differences, 

 viz. that in the Old World the former group occupies a somewhat 



