148 SIT.OUDKU IV. SALTATORIA. 



Suborder IV. SALTATORIA. 



THE LEAPING ORTHOPTERA. 



Qrthoptera of very diverse appearance but all agreeing in hav- 

 ing the head vertical; face often oblique; hind femora very much 

 stonier, or very much longer, or both stouter and longer than the 

 middle ones; tibia? armed with numerous spines; stridnlating or- 

 gans usually present; ovipositor, with fe\v exceptions, free and 

 exserted. 



The name Saltatoria is derived from the Latin xoltiitor, "a 

 dancer." and was first applied by Latreille (1817) to those Or- 

 thoptera having the hind legs fitted for leaping. lU-longing to 

 this class or suborder are four families which comprise the great 

 majority of our best known Orfhoptera. They are the true t- hop- 

 j-ers" or leapers of the order; their hind limbs, in the course of 

 ages, having become so modified as to be adapted in the highest 

 degree to the life which they lead. Possessing, also, in many in- 

 slances, ample organs of flight, which enable them when disturbed 

 to move rapidly to a distance, the males have evolved in connec- 

 tion therewith organs of sound, by which they may call the mem- 

 bers of the opposite sex to them. Were it not for these calling 

 organs the two sexes would, during their varied movements, often 

 be widely separated, and perhaps be unable to locate one another 

 after settling in a new position. The males alone possess these 

 organs of sound, and they only when wings are present. All the 

 wingless forms lack also "auditory organs" or ears, since these 

 would be useless unless some means of producing sound were 

 present. 



KKV TO TIIK 1'AMILIKS OF SALTATORIA. 



it. Antennas much shorter than body, variable in form; ocelli three: 

 tarsi usually 3-jointed; calling organs of male, when present, (ex- 

 cept in Oeclipodinso) situated on the hind femora and lower bor- 

 der of tegmina; organs of hearing, when present, located on basal 

 segment of abdomen; ovipositor composed of two pairs of short, 

 horny, more or less curved plates, whose tips diverge. 

 I). Pronotum narrowed behind and prolonged backward to or beyond 

 the tip of abdomen; tegmina represented by small oval lobes or 

 scales on the sides of the body and covering only the bases of 

 the wings; tarsi of fore and middle legs 2-jointed; claws of tarsi 

 without a pad (arolium) between them: size very small, length. 

 of female not over 17 mm. Family V. TKTKK ID.K. p. 149. 



l>b. Fronotum never extending over the abdomen; trgminu usually 

 well developed and- in repose covering wholly or in great part 



