Insects 147 



ORTHOPTERA 



The crickets, grasshoppers, locusts, cockroaches, mantids 

 and stick-insects have usually been placed in a single order called 

 Orthoptera. The name refers to the straight upper wings of 

 such insects as locusts, but is unsuitable for many of the other 

 forms. In recent years, impressed by the great differences be- 

 tween the groups placed in Orthoptera, certain authors have 

 proposed to recognize, not one order, but several. Whether we 

 do this or not is of no great moment, so long as we fully appreciate 

 the characters of the group. At the outset, we observe that 

 some, evidently the more primitive, neither jump nor attempt 

 any form of music. Such are the Blattidae (cockroaches), Phas- 

 midae (stick-insects) and Mantidae (mantises)*. The other great 

 division is characterized by enlarged hind legs, adapted for 

 leaping; and various sounds are produced, some of which can very 

 well be expressed in musical notation. Indeed it may perhaps 

 be said that the grasshoppers, with their monotonous repetition 

 of sounds, invented jazz. They were presumably the first 

 musicians in all the world, earlier than the singing birds. There 

 is no doubt that the jumping Orthoptera date back to the earlier 

 part of the Mesozoic; the Pycnophkbia of the lithographic stone 

 of Solnhofen in Bavaria shows very well the large jumping hind 

 legs, and even the tympanum or hearing organ on the anterior 

 tibiae. This was at a time when birds had many reptilian fea- 

 tures, including teeth and a long tail bearing feathers. 



Much earlier than this, however, the Blattids or cockroaches 

 abounded. They swarmed through the forests of the Pennsyl- 

 vanian Epoch, at the time when the red rocks of the Colorado 

 front range were being deposited. In the vicinity of Fairplay, 

 Colorado, many years ago, numerous cockroaches were found in 

 rocks which are at least as old as the Lower Permian, and were 

 described by Scudder. Figures are given in the Memoirs of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, 1890. Unfortunately this 

 interesting discovery was never followed up, and no one knows 

 what treasures may reward further diligent search. 



Today, the cockroaches we meet with in Colorado towns 



*Mr. Rehn points out that certain Mantidae (such as Yersinia) can really leap, and even 

 have slightly inflated hind femora. This incipient tendency to develop saltatorial powers is of 

 ch interest, as suggesting how the leaping Orthoptera developed the faculty. 



mucr 



