(401) 



6. Descriptions of New or Little-known Orthoptera in the Collection 

 of the South African Museum. By L. PEKINGUEY, D.Sc., F.Z.S., 

 F.E.S., Director. Part I. 



(With Plate XLII. and 8 Text-figs.) 



FAMILY ACRIDIDAE. 



SUB.-FAM. PNEUMORINAE. 



The insects belonging to this group are the most aberrant of all 

 Acrididae. They have no saltatorial power. In the males the abdo- 

 men is produced in the shape of a very large vesicle so transparent 

 that the disposition of the internal organs, especially the trachea! 

 system, is often visible ; the hind femora are cylindrical, yet the music 

 they produce is louder than that of any other Acridid, and I can also 

 safely say of any Orthopteron known to me. It is also of an entirely 

 different character ; I should, perhaps, say key. It consists of a long 

 and very deep and loud rasping noise, a stop, and a second noise 

 shorter, but occasionally louder than the first, and sounding as if it 

 wei-e produced by exhalation. The phonetic spelling of the name 

 given them by the Kaffirs is Groonid, the Gr being very guttural ; the 

 female, however, produces the shrill, rasp-like notes of the Acridid. 

 In Bulla and Pneumora the tegmiua and wings of the female are very 

 rudimentary but horny, and hidden under the tectiforrn pronotum. 

 When alarmed she raises the prouotum at a high angle, and produces 

 an extremely sharp stridulatiou, nearly equal in intensity to that of a 

 Decticid, and meanwhile she is endeavouring to escape, but her 

 movements are very slow. The large Cystocoelia, in -which the wings 

 are partially developed, but membranous instead of being horny, are 

 probably not able to produce the same noise as Pneumora. 



As usual with the species in which the females are apterous, the 

 males frequent trees or bushes, at the foot of which I have often 

 found them dead. I was once camping near the sea-board of Saldanha 

 in a waterless spot. In the evening rain fell. One would have thought 

 himself on the edge of a pond tenanted by frogs, owing to the inces- 

 sant music of the Gecko lizards, occupying every clump of reeds 



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