THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER, 161 



It is usually about half an inch long, and of a brownish 

 or greyish tint, but it varies greatly in its colouring. 



The preceding, however, are jiot the only British 

 Grasshoppers, for several other species may be met 

 with amongst herbage, generally in damp situations. 

 Amongst the commonest is the Great Green Grass- 

 hopper {Gryllus viridissimus) , the largest of the British 

 Orthoptera, and one of the largest of our native insects, 

 of which the female measures about two inches in 

 length, and three and a half in expanse of wing. It 

 is entirely of a light green colour, and may be met 

 with in moist meadows in many parts of the country. 

 Its form is less robust than is usual in the Locustina, 

 from which it also differs in many important cha- 

 racters, forming, as it does, the type of a second tribe 

 of Saltatorial Orthoptera, to which the name of 

 Gryllina may be given. 



The most striking of these characters consist in 

 the great length of the antennae, which are about as 

 long as the body, composed of a great number of 

 joints, very slender, and tapering gradually to the 

 extremity, and in the four-jointed structure of the 

 tarsi. The wings and wing-cases are arranged as in 

 the Locustina, in the form of a roof upon the back of 

 the abdomen, and the latter is terminated in the 

 females by a long, compressed, sword-like ovipositor, 

 composed of two flattened valves. 



Like the insects of the preceding tribe, the male 

 Green Grasshopper and his allies are endowed with the 

 power of producing a loud chirping noise, but this is 

 effected in a very different manner in the group before 

 us. If we examine the elytra of one of these insects. 



