178 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



toward dusk, when it flies about. This is the only true aquatic orthopterous insect 

 known. 



In contemplating these singular creatures and their wonderful resemblances to the 

 vegetation upon which they occur, one cannot help noticing still further resemblances. 

 They are born with the bursting of the buds in the spring ; they drop their eggs as the 

 trees drop their seeds, and they commence to fall and perish with the leaves, the later 

 ones persisting, like the last leaves, till frost cuts them off. We have not more than a 

 half dozen representatives of the Phasmida? within the limits of the United States. 



We now come to that extensive division of the Orthoptera known as the Saltatorial 

 Orthoptera. This division contains by far the greatest number of species, each of 

 which possesses rather exceptional powers of jumping or leaping, and hence has the 





FIG. 254, Phy Ilium siccifolium, walking-leaf. 



hind femora greatly developed for this purpose. While this character is common to 

 all the Saltatoria the division is readily separable into three very distinct families. 

 These families are the Gryllida?, or crickets, the Locustidae, or grasshoppers and katy- 

 dids, and the Acrididae, or locusts. While the families comprising the crickets and 

 katydids differ from each other in many respects, they are nevertheless very closely 

 connected in some of their wingless genera. They possess common characters, and 

 have similar habits ; many of the species in both families being wingless, and having 

 somewhat similar shapes. The antennae are long and threadlike in both. The Acri- 

 dida3, on the contrary, are widely separated from the rest of the Orthoptera in most 

 of their characters, and are the most highly organized representatives of the order. 



We will mention these families one by one, and characterize each, in its turn, by 

 describing a few of the commoner species as well as those that are odd, and deviate 

 somewhat from the typical form. 



