326 ^MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



longs ^. All lliese insects have the tenuinal sucker 

 between tlie claws, three foot-cushions on the first 

 joint ot" the tarsus, and one on the second ^ ; and the 

 same conformation also distinguishes the feet of Tnix- 

 alis'^. In the species of ^r;7/^«/w/, F. (7W?7.r, Latr.), 

 the foot-cushions, I believe — for in the dead insect they 

 are the reverse of conspicuous — are arranged nearly as 

 in the two preceding genera, but these insects are with- 

 out the claw-sucker. And lastly, Grylhis has neither 

 suckers nor cushions. From this statement it seems to 

 follow — since Blatta, P/ia.wia, and Mcmtis, that do not 

 leap, are provided with cushions ; and Gryllus, a heavy 

 tribe of insects that does, are without them — that their 

 object cannot be exclusively to break the fall of the 

 insects that have them. And for the same reason we may 

 conclude, that they must have some further use than 

 augmenting their elasticity when they jump. When we 

 consider that the Blattcc — many of which have no suckers, 

 or very small ones — are climbing insects (I have seen 

 B. Germanica riui up and down the walls of an apart- 

 ment with great agility), and that the long anil gigantic 

 apterous spectres, &c. (Phasma) require considerable 

 means to enable them to climb the trees in which they 

 feed, and to maintain their station upon them, we may 

 conclude that these cushions, by acting in some degree 

 as suckers, may promote these ends. 



Amongst the homojiterous Hemiptna^ Chcrmes and 

 many of the Ccrcopidce^ are furnished with the claw- 

 snckers ; but the noisy Cicadcv, as well as the heteropte- 



•' See Zoning. Jour, for 1825. No. iv. 431, 

 '■ Philos. Trans. 181G. /. xxi./. l-I). 



<■ The orthography of this name is Troxallis, from the Greek 

 'TrM^(t>,'M:, Griillux. ' De Gecr, iii. 13?. 173. 



