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V. ' 



I 



O R T H O P T E R A. ' 



Among the Orthoptera""^ we meet with some of the largest of insects 

 and particularly those which are of strange and extraordinary shapes 

 The best known insects of this order are the Mantes^ Cockroaches 

 EarwigSjt Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets, &c. 



The Orthoptera have the anterior wings long, narrow, half-homy 

 These are elytra, which serve as cases for their second wings, as i 

 the case with the Coleoptera. But the elytra of the Orthoptera ar 

 less solid and less complete than those of the Coleoptera. Moreovei 

 they generally over-lap each other when the insect is at rest, which i 

 another distinctive characteristic. The second wings are membranous 

 very broad, and veined ; and, when at rest, are folded up like a far 

 The mouth is composed of free pieces. The mandibles, the jaws 

 and the two lips, always well developed, show them to be insect 

 whicli grind their food. Their voracity, and the rapid way in whic 

 they multiply, sometimes make these insects the pest of the country 

 Above all, they are to be met with in hot countries, where they caus 

 such great damage that all vegetation disappears on their passag( 

 There are not a great variety of species of Orthoptera. They ai 

 insects whose metamorphoses are incomplete j that is, they underg 

 only trifling changes from the moment when the eggs are hatched t 

 the time when the insect is fully developed. 



When it leaves the egg, the young one resembles its parents ; 

 differs only in size and in having no wings. After moulting four ( 

 five times it has almost reached its full growth, and its wings begin 1 

 appear under a sort of membrane. This is the pupa state. A fin; 

 moulting sets free the wings also, and the insect, now perfect, launcht 

 itself into the air with its congeners. 



* From op0os, straight, and trr^pov, wing, on account of the manner in whii 

 the under-wings are folded under the upper. — Ed, 



t Made a separate Order, Dermaptera, by Kirby.— Ed. 



