LEFEBVRE ON MANTIS. 345 



curious example of this fact in the genus Saga of Charpentiei- 

 {Tettigops'ts, Fischer). 



Judging from the known species indigenous to temperate as 

 well as more tropical lands, such as the south of France, 

 Madagascar, the Crimea, Syria, Spain, South America, &c., 

 we should say that the genus Saga is devoid of wings and 

 elytra, and in its perfect state would only possess the rudiments 

 of them. Like many other entomologists, I should have 

 readily made the absence of these organs one of the characters 

 of the genus, if a female specimen, (and, according to M. 

 Serville, the males in Orthoptera are best provided with the 

 organs of flight,) unquestionably of the genus Saga, which I 

 saw in his collection, and which Stoll figures, {Sauterelles a 

 sabre, pi. 11, No. 53,) had not been furnished with elytra, and 

 the wings of which equalled in their expansion almost half 

 the size of the insect ! 



Must we then conclude that the Sagce, which are known to 

 us have not attained the full growth of which their alary organs 

 are susceptible, or that there exist in the genus species, whose 

 wings and elytra are sometimes developed, sometimes abortive, 

 or more, that their full expansion can only happen very rarely ? 

 for we cannot admit their size in the present instance to be an 

 anomaly. 



Such is the doubt which in some groups seems almost im- 

 possible to resolve. But as it is evident that the organs of 

 flight in Orthoptera are mostly very secondary, it is quite 

 as certain that we shall be liable to fall into error when we 

 attempt to determine by them whether or not an Orthopterous 

 insect be in the perfect state ; since many of these insects, if 

 we may judge by the wings and elytra, remain all their life 

 either in the larva or pupa state, and which, from the number 

 of instances of it, may be considered their final stage. We 

 meet also many specimens in the pupa state which would 

 readily be supposed to have reached their last change, but 

 more or less abortive in their organs ; in fact, this last stage 

 presents a host of anomalies. Still it is on the wings and 

 elytra that I must rest the characters which I am compelled to 

 establish of the different states in the Eremiaphilw ; so fugitive 

 and unsatisfactory are the other distinctions to which I would 

 fain have had recourse, but the investigation of which has 

 hitherto baffled me. 



