ORTHOPTERA. ' 293 



Those Orthoptera which we have already mentioned had all their 

 •six legs adapted to running, and are called Cursoria. Those which 

 jump, to which we now come, have their hind-legs stronger and 

 thicker, which enables them to leap, and are on that account called 

 Saltatoria. This section comprises three families, which have for 

 their principal types the Crickets, Locusts, and Grasshoppers. 



All these insects resemble each other in the disproportion which 

 ^exists between their hind-legs and the other pairs. Another cha- 

 racteristic which is common to them consists in the song of the 

 males. This song, so well known, which seems to have for its object 

 to call the females, is nothing but a sort of stridulation or screeching, 

 produced by the rubbing together of the wing cases, or elytra. But 

 the mechanism by which this is produced varies a little in all the 

 three kinds. With the Crickets the whole surface of the wing cases 

 is covered with thick nervures, very prominent and very hard, which 

 cause the noise the insect produces in rubbing the elytra one against 

 the other. With the Locusts, there exists only at the base of the 

 elytra a transparent membrane called the mirror, which is furnished 

 with prominent nervures, and produces the screeching noise. And, 

 lastly, in the Crickets the thighs and elytra are provided with very 

 hard ridges. The thighs, being passed rapidly and with force over 

 the nervures of the elytra, produce the sound, in the same way as a 

 fiddle-bow when drawn across the strings of a violin. In all these 

 insects the male alone is endowed with the faculty of producing 

 sound. 



The Crickets and Grasshoppers have very long and thin antennae, 

 whilst the Locusts have short antennae, and either flattened or fili- 

 form, or swelling out at one extremity like a club. The female 

 of the first two is provided with an ovipositor in the shape of an 

 auger. 



We will study successfully the three types of these famiHes, that is 

 to say, the Crickets, the Locusts, and the Grasshoppers. 



The Field Cricket (Grylhis campestris, Fig. 304) lives alone in a 

 hole which it digs in the ground, and in which it remains during the 

 day. It only quits its retreat at night, when it goes in search of food. 

 It is very timid, and at the least noise ceases its song. If it is 

 stationed on the side of its hole, it retreats into it the moment any 

 one approaches. 



The holes of the crickets are well known to country children, 

 who take these insects by presenting a straw to them. The 

 pugnacious cricket seizes it directly with its mandibles, and lets 

 itself be drawn out of its hole. It is this which has s^iven rise to the 



