ORTHOPTERA. 191 



on each side as flexible and shapeless as strips of dampened lace, but soon they begin 

 to dry and harden, and are, by degrees, drawn up into place. The anterior pair, 

 which were at first transparent, become gradually green and opaque, and display the 

 characteristic leaf-like veinings ; while the broad under-wings, formed of transparent 

 membrane, intersected by an exquisite network of green veins, are folded fanlike 

 beneath them, with only the tips, for about a third of an inch, visible, this portion 

 being gi-een and thickened like the wing-covers. The whole operation of moulting is 

 performed within an hour. 



" The first notes from this katydid are heard about the middle of July, and the 

 species is in full song by the first of August. The wing-covers are partially opened 

 by a sudden jerk, and the notes produced by the gradual closing of the same. The 

 song consists of a series of from twenty-five to thirty raspings, as of a stiff quill drawn 

 across a coarse file. There are about five of these raspings or trills per second, all 

 alike, and with equal intervals, except the last two or three, which, with the closing of 

 the wing-covers, run into each other. The whole strongly recalls the slow turning of 

 a child's wooden rattle, ending by a sudden jerk of the same ; and this prolonged 

 rattling, which is peculiar to the male, is invariable and instantly answered by a single 

 sharp ' chirp ' or ' tschick ' from one or more females, who produce the sound by a sud- 

 den jerk upward of the wings." 



Microcentrum affiliatnm, a closely allied species, has the same range with the pre- 

 ceding. It is a lai'ger insect, and is nowhere so common as retinervis. In Central 

 and South America occur several very large species, which belong to closely allied 

 genera. 



Our remaining species of katydids belong to the genus Phaneroptera, of which 

 Phaneroptera curvicauda is the best known species. It is a much more slender insect 

 than the others noticed, and the ovipositor is broad and greatly curved. The eggs 

 are laid singly in the edges of leaves, between the upper and lower cuticles, and are so 

 thin that they are not noticeable except when the leaf is held between one's self and 

 the light. They swell very considerably, however, in the spring, before hatching. 



The genus Locusta, which contains the typical species of the family, is composed 

 of large, strong-bodied insects, which are furnished with long, narrow elytra, and broad 

 wings. The females are provided with long ovipositors with which they place their 

 eggs in the ground. Locusta fuliginosa is confined to the arid plateaus of the great 

 interior basin, where it lives on the low and sombre-colored vegetation. It is dull 

 grayish-brown in color, with short, pellucid bands between the veins of the wings. 

 A greenish-colored variety of this species occurs in Utah. The ovipositor in this 

 species measures a trifle over an inch in length. Locusta occidentalis is a smaller and 

 more slender species said to occur in California. This is also fuliginous in color. 

 Locusta mridissima, the Great Green Grasshopper, occurs throughout Europe from 

 Sweden southward, also in North Africa and Asia Minor. It lives on trees, bushes, 

 and all sorts of plants, and is often found in grain fields. Locusta caudata, also Euro- 

 pean, enjoys a similarly wide range with the last-named species, and in Transylvania 

 is quite common in fields of grain. A third species, Locusta cautans, is also very 

 widely distributed both in Europe and Asia. Brunner von Wattenwyl, in his 

 Poodromus of European Orthoptera, mentions an undescribed species of this genus 

 as occurring in Japan. 



The ACRIDID^E, embracing the locusts, is by far the largest family of the Orthoptera, 

 and contains the most destructive of the insect class. It is perhaps unfortunate, as 



