Chap. X. Orihoptera. 289 



Homoptera, impresses the mind with the high importance 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, 44 that there has 

 been more than ample time. This naturalist has lately found 

 a fossil insect in the Devonian formation of New Brunswick, 

 which is furnished with " the well-known tympanum or stridu- 

 " lating apparatus of the male Locustidae." The insect, though 

 in most respects related to the Neuroptera, appears, as is so often 

 the case with very ancient forms, to connect the two related 

 Orders of the Neuroptera and Orthoptera. 



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 Mantis are described as 

 manoeuvring with their sword-like front-limbs, like hussars with 

 their sabres. The Chinese keep these insects in little bamboo 

 cages, and match them like game-cocks. 45 With respect to 

 colour, some exotic locusts are beautifully ornamented ; the 

 posterior wings being marked with red, blue, and black ; but as 

 throughout the Order the sexes rarely differ much in colour, it 

 is not probable that they owe their bright tints to sexual 

 selection. Conspicuous colours may be of use to these insects, 

 by giving notice that they are unpalatable. Thus it has been 

 observed 46 that a bright-coloured Indian locust was invariably 

 rejected when offered to birds and lizards. Some cases, however, 

 are known of sexual differences in colour in this Order. The 

 male of an American cricket 47 is described as being as white as 

 ivory, whilst the female varies from almost white to greenish- 

 yellow or dusky. Mr. Walsh informs me that the adult male of 

 Spectrum femoralum (one of the Phasmidse) " is of a shining 

 " brownish-yellow colour ; the adult female being of a dull, 

 " opaque, cinereous brown ; the young of both sexes being green." 

 Lastly, I may mention that the male of one curious kind oi 

 cricket 48 is furnished with "a long membranous appendage, 

 " which falls over the face like a veil ;" but what its use may be, 

 is not known. 



44 ' Transact. Ent, Soc.' 3rd series, 47 The (Ecanthus nivalis. Harris, 

 vol. ii. ('Journal of Proceedings,' 'Insects of New England,' 1842, p. 

 p. 117.) 124. The two sexes of (E. pellucidus 



45 Westwood, ' Modern Class, of of Europe differ, as I hear from 

 Insects,' vol. i. p. 427 ; for crickets, Victor Carus, in nearly the same 

 p. 445. manner. 



46 Mr. Ch. Home, in ' Proc. Ent, 48 Platyblemnus : Westwood, 

 Soc ' May 3, 1869, p. xii. ' Molern Class.' vol. i. p. 447. 



