Chap. X.] ORTHOPTERA. 349 



the last moult, when the insect is mature and ready to 

 breed. 



From the facts now given, we see that the means by 

 which the males produce their sounds are extremely di- 

 versified in the Orthoptera, and are altogether different 

 from those employed by the Homoptera. But throughout 

 the animal kingdom we incessantly find the same object 

 gained by the most diversified means ; this being due to 

 the whole organization undergoing in the course of ages 

 multifarious changes ; and, as part after part varies, differ- 

 ent variations are taken advantage of for the same gen- 

 eral purpose. The diversification of the means for pro- 

 ducing sound, in the three families of the Orthoptera and 

 in the Homoptera, impresses the mind with the high im- 

 portance of these structures to the males, for the sake of 

 calling or alluring the females. We need feel no surprise 

 at the amount of modification which the Orthoptera have 

 undergone in this respect, as we now know, from Dr. 

 Scudder's remarkable discovery, 42 that there has been 

 more than ample time. This naturalist has lately found a 

 fossil insect in the Devonian formation of New Bruns- 

 wick, which is furnished with " the well-known tympanum 

 or stridulating apparatus of the male Locustidae." This 

 insect, though in most respects related to the Neuroptera, 

 appears to connect, as is so often the case with very an- 

 cient forms, the two Orders of the Neuroptera and Or- 

 thoptera which are now generally ranked as quite distinct. 



I have but little more to say on the Orthoptera. Some 

 of the species are very pugnacious : when two male field- 

 crickets (Gryllus campestris) are -* confined together, they 

 fight till one kills the other ; and the species of Nantis are 

 described as manoeuvring with their sword-like front-limbs, 

 like hussars with their sabres. The Chinese keep these 



42 ' Transact. Ent. Soc' 3d series, vol. ii. (' Journal of Proceedings,' 

 p. 117.) 



