INSECT VARIETY. 155 



reciprocal attenuation of the teeth is calculated to jDroduce a 

 musical sound or double gamut ; while the raised mirror repre- 

 sents a bell in accumulating' resulting vibrations. In the 

 Saddled Leaf-crickets [EjjJiippiger, Fisch.), the elytra — abbre- 

 viated, dense, and scaly, and concealed beneath the prothorax — 

 have an effective lima, situate in the males as previously on the 

 left elytron's under surface ; but in their females there is another 

 on the glassy talc-like spot on the upper surface of the right. 

 Numerous exotic modifications occur, and sometimes, as in the 

 little autu.mnal blight-like Meconema, Ser., the musical organ 

 is absent. The elytron also is subject to abbreviation, often 

 presenting but the anal field ; this takes place, too, even in one 

 genus, Decticus, Ser. ; and it appears the rule the longer the 

 elytra in a species, the less unbroken its music and the richer 

 in half-tones. / 



All species of Leaf-cricket are at once recognisable by the sabre- 

 shaped ovipositor of their females; and their long antennae. 

 Their wing-covers, with talc-like spots in the males, are 

 constructed like those of the cursorial kinds, to resemble in 

 shape and colour the green and brown autumnal decay of the 

 kingdom of Flora, where the majority preserve their delicate 

 hues amid equinoctial damp and shade. Their thread-like 

 antennae seem designed to guard against the approach of friend 

 or foe, and their leaping-legs have joints longer and more slim 

 than either the grasshoppers or crickets, which causes many to 

 be excellent leapers. Their elytra and ample wings act as 

 gauzy paracliutes as they spring, and either sustain or gently 

 float them onwards. Like grasshoppers, the leaf-crickets live in 

 wandering caravans, and while the males challenge and move 

 imperceptibly forwards, they are heard and followed up by their 

 mute females, who, like dames of romance, are subjected to 

 life-long serenades. Their societies are nocturnal or diurnal, 

 and the shrill of the former, affecting a light atmosphere, 

 frequently presages a downpour of rain. 



The larger kinds, whose wing-covers, broad and thick, 

 resemble the glossy foliage of exotic shrubs and trees, come 

 to us from abroad, and these are arboreal and nocturnal in 

 habit, frequenting the thick shades of primeval forests. One, 

 Chloroccelus Tanana, discovered by Mr. Bates while ex- 



