606 



FAMILY VII. TETTIGONIIDJE. THE CAMEL CRICKETS. 



Subfamily VII. RHAPHIDOPHORIN^:. 



THE CAVE AND CAMEL CRICKETS. 



Wingless Tettigouiids of medium or large size having the body 

 robust, subcylindrical, more or less curved ; anteunie approximate 

 at base, filiform, of excessive length; head small, subrotund, re- 

 ceived within and partly covered by the apical portion of prono- 

 tum; vertex short, narrow, usually deflexed, sometimes tubercu- 

 late; prouotum short, without lateral carinse, of the same general 

 form as the meso-and nietauotum ; lateral lobes much longer than 

 deep, their front and hind margins broadly rounded into the lower 

 one; fore and middle femora slender, usually unarmed beneath; 

 hind femora very robust, armed or not, the angle of their inser- 

 tion on the inner and not on the outer side beneath; hind tibi;<> 

 often very long, armed above on each carina with numerous short 



teeth, and usually with four or 

 more long movable dorsal spines, 

 their tips also with three pairs 

 of apical spurs (Fig. 203) ; tarsi 

 long, slender, the joints com- 

 pressed without pulvilli beneath. 

 Supranal plate of male usually 

 in great part concealed beneath 

 the last dorsal segment. Cerci 

 long, slender, tapering, unarmed. 

 Ovipositor stout at base, strong- 

 ly tapering toward apex, which 

 is usually rather blunt, the inner 

 valves armed beneath. 



The subfamily is represented 



ibia; also the compressed joints j R a ]| i )}lr t s of the earth, bllt its 



(After Caudell.) 



species are more numerous in the 

 United States than in any other country. Its members are mainly 

 nocturnal or crepuscular in habits, living in caves, quarries, walls 

 of old wells, cellars, crevices of stone walls, beneath or in decay- 

 ing logs and stumps, hollow trees and burrows of mammals or 

 reptiles. Without wings, stridulating organs or ears, they comprise 

 a group of queer forms among our Orthoptera. Living in total 

 or semi-darkness during the day, they move silently and stealthily 

 about at night, guided principally by their long antennae Their 

 food habits and life histories are as yet practically unknown and 

 offer an interesting and virgin field of research to aspiring stud- 



. 3 



- 4 



Fig. 203. Hind tibia and tarsus of 

 Rhaphidophorinse, showing the dorsal spines, 

 i 5, apical spurs, 6 8 and ventral spines, 

 9 10, of tibia 

 of tarsus. 



