56 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



enemies to which it would readily have fallen a 

 prey. 



Treehoppers live by eating the foliage of trees, 

 being particularly partial to the Eucalyptus. The 

 Green Treehopper {Elephant odita pinguis) some- 

 times becomes a pest in orange orchards, where it 

 nibbles the green skin of the young fruit. The 



scar so made heals, but appears as a brown patch 

 when the fruit is ripe, and this to a certain degree 

 takes from its commercial value. 



An interesting treehopper called the Mountain 

 Grasshopper {Acrldopeza reticulata) is described 

 by Froggatt : "both sexes are of a uniform dull brown 

 colour, but very different in structure ; the male 

 measures 2 inches ; has long pointed elytra, and well 

 developed wings ; the head is small ; the antennae 

 slender and thread-like ; the eyes stand out on the 

 side of the head, and the thorax is saddle-shaped. 

 The female is furnished with a very short, rounded 

 body, richly mottled with blue, white, and red, 

 covered with a pair of rounded, short, shell-like 

 elytra, but the wings are wanting. When dis- 

 turbed, she stands on tip-toes, arches her bodv, 

 raises her elytra, exposing all the bright tints of 

 her body, which probably act as a warning to her 

 enemies." 



Another Phasgonurid is the Wingless Anostos- 

 oiiia, which is very robust lookino-, with shining 

 reddish-brown body and leq-s and powerful head 

 and mouth parts. Paragryllacris has most beautiful 

 net-veined wings and very Inng antennae. It shows 

 fight when disturbed. We found one in a hole in 

 the trunk of a o-um tree. 



