OBSERVATIONS ON SOME NEW ORTHOPTERA. 259 



against the rusty red coat, and form an important character of this 

 larva. 



L. qiierciiyi (from Dorset). — The imagines I need not describe. The 

 larva? were dark, rusty-brown, Avith short greyish-white hairs on the 

 back and white longitudinal dashes above the white spiracles. The 

 face, except the rusty central triangle, black (blue, Bacot). It may be 

 interesting to note that some Scandinavian iinoriis {calbinac .') larvae 

 kindly sent me by Professor Aurivillius, all of which died in London 

 at about the third moult, were very dark, with tufti^ of whitish hair 

 down the middle of the back''. 



* Mr. Bacot notes : " Characteristic of the early (about hybernatiug) stage of 

 British L. querciU also, I have a specimen taken by Mr. Fuller after hybernation 

 (I think, at Deal) which has these tufts strongly marked, although the larva is 

 2^" long, and is probably in the oth stadium." 



Observations on some new and little=known Orthoptera 

 with biological notes . 



By J. PORTCHINSKY (translated by Jacok Kotinsky). 



(C())u-li((U'(l fro)ii j). 243.) 



It is not hard to guess the purpose served by the bright colours 

 developed upon the hind-legs. It is known that not infrequently the 

 hind-legs of the two sexes of these insects are difierently coloured ; 

 thus, for example, we have just seen by how much the colouring of 

 the hind-legs of the male differs from that of those of the female in 

 Xocarodcs cjja)iipes. We must, therefore, look upon the coloration of 

 these legs as a secondary sexual character, having an important 

 significance in the lives of these animals. But now we shall see 

 whether the colour of the hind-legs does not affect some characters 

 pecuhar to the Acridian family. Upon examining three families of 

 these insects having most in common, viz., the grasshoppers (Acrid indca) 

 locusts (Lociistoilea), and crickets {Gri/lludca) , we are immediately 

 struck with that difference which, in the general resemblance among 

 the representatives of the three named families, is noticed in the 

 position of the stridulating organs, on one the side in the locusts and 

 crickets, and on the other in the grasshoppers. Thus, we know, that 

 these organs are upon the tegmina of the first two families, and the 

 sounds are produced by the rubbing of the tegmina against one 

 another. This method of sound-production is especially common 

 among insects with hard tegmina (in Coleoptera, for instance) where 

 the sounds are produced by the rubbing of the overlapping or touching 

 of hard parts of the body. In Acridiidae, however, entirely different 

 parts of the body participate in the sound production, and it is known, 

 that their raspnig is produced by the rubbing of the femur against the 

 raised meshwork of veinlets upon the tegmina. When one of the 

 males begins to stridulate, he bends the tibia of the hind-leg under the 

 femur, where it is inserted into the groove, and then draws the legs up 

 and down like a violin bow. Graber (Vcrhandl. zool.-hot. Gen. Wun., 

 1H71, p. 1097) finding that the general principles of the structure of 

 the stridulating organs are the same in all Orthoptera, tries to explain 



* From Home Socictatia Knt<iiiii>lo(j'u-ae Ho^sicac, vol. xx., pp. 111-127, pi. xii., 

 188G. 



