ORTHOPTERA 15 



Gryllodes Sauss. 



(i) Gryllodes poeyi Sauss. 

 Gryllodes poeyi, Brunner loc. cit. 



Hab. Common generally on the plains, and lower slopes of the mountains. 

 Obs. An immature example of a second species of Gryllodes was obtained at 

 Lahaina, Maui, but no adult. 



Paratrigonidium Brunn. (1893). 



The sixteen species of this genus are closely allied to one another, and in some 

 cases the specific characters are difficult to appreciate. This is partly due to the varia- 

 bility of some of the species, but also to the changes which take place after the death 

 of the insect in the process of drying. Thus P. viridescens in life is quite different in 

 appearance (Plate I. fig. 11) to any other species of the genus, and its peculiar habits 

 leave no doubt that it really is distinct, yet in dried examples its resemblance to several 

 other species is extreme. P. pacijicum, the first-described Hawaiian species, is in some 

 respects the most aberrant of the series, since it differs from all the others in the structure 

 of the ^ genitalia, and of the % ovipositor, as well as in the neuration of the lateral field 

 of the tegmina (Plate II. fig. to). 



As to the absence of wings in this genus, it is noteworthy that although in 

 the adult insect the metathoracic wings are entirely wanting, yet in the penultimate 

 state they are as well developed as the mesothoracic (or tegmina). Thus both the 

 tegmina and the wings develope equally during the earlier stages up to the last 

 ecdysis, when the tegmina undergo a further and very great developement, while the 

 wings, on the other hand, not only cease to develope, but entirely abort. 



The habits of the various species are interesting, and a large number are found to 

 inhabit only one particular species of tree or plant. Thus P. viridescens and P. filicum 

 live amongst ferns, but each is found only on one particular species of fern. P. saltator 

 hides at the bases of the leaves of Freycinetia, P. atroferrugineiini amongst those of 

 Metrosideros. Several species are found only beneath the bark of large trees, but 

 P. pacifiaim is to a large degree terrestrial. Most of the species are nocturnal in their 

 activities, others are active by day, but generally only in damp shady gulches and dense 

 forests. P. pacijicum in such situations sings the whole day through, with a plaintive 

 chirp, but at night all the species are most active and noisy. There is a considerable 

 difference between the songs of some of the species, and in some cases the sound can 

 be heard at a great distance. The power of leaping of most of the species is prodigious, 

 and the time that must be spent to collect a series of the most active ones is very 



