How they are constructed 

 Adult 



Antenna 



Wing 



Pronotum 



Tarsal claws 



Nymph 



A:S 



Fig. 14. A long-horned grasshopper, adult and nymph, showing the 

 principal external features 



The thorax shows its original three segments more clearly on the 

 underneath, or ventral side, where the three pairs of segmented legs 

 arise. From the upper, or dorsal side the segments that bear the wings 

 take up most of the space in order to accommodate the big muscles of 

 flight. Usually the second and third segments (called the mesothorax 

 and the metathorax) are thus enlarged, at the expense of the first seg- 

 ment, or prothoraxy which remains small. In the true flies (Diptera) 

 there is only one pair of wings, on the mesothorax, and so both pro- 

 thorax and metathorax are small in these insects. 



A segmented leg is normally composed of five main parts : the coxa, 

 or *hip', which attaches it to the thorax; the trochanter, a small double- 

 joint providing great freedom of movement for the femur, or 'thigh', 

 the biggest segment of the leg; the tibia, or 'shin'; and the tarsus, or 

 ' foot ', which is further subdivided in most insects into as many as five 



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