ORTIIOPTERA. 127 



sist of nothing more than a successive scries of moultings, 

 during which their wings are gradually developed. These 

 changes may receive the name of imperfect or incomplete 

 transformation, in contradistinction to the far greater changes 

 exhibited by those insects which pass through a complete 

 transformation in their progress to maturity. 



Cockroaches are general feeders, and nothing comes amiss 

 to them, whether of vegetable or animal nature ; the Mantes 

 or soothsayers are predaceous and carnivorous, devouring 

 weaker insects, and even those of their own kind occasionally ; 

 but by far the greater part of the Orthopterous insects subsist 

 on vegetable food, grass, flowers, fruits, the leaves, and even 

 the bark of trees : whence it follows, in connexion with their 

 considerable size, their great voracity, and the immense troops 

 or swarms in which they too often appear, that they are 

 capable of doing great injury to vegetation. 



The Orthoptera may be divided into four large groups : 



1. Runners ( Orthoptera cursoria*), including earwigs and 

 cockroaches, with all the legs fitted for rapid motion ; 



2. Graspers ( Orthoptera raptoria), such as the Mantes, or 

 soothsayers, with the shanks of the fore legs capable of being 

 doubled upon the under side of the thigh, which, moreover, is 

 armed with teeth, and thus forms an instrument for seizing 

 and holding their prey ; 



3. Walkers (Orthoptera ambulatoria), lilte the spectres or 

 walking sticks, having weak and slender legs, which do not 

 admit of rapid motion ; and 



4. Jumpers ( Orthoptera saltatoria), such as crickets, grass- 

 hoppers, and locusts, in which the thighs of the hind legs are 

 much larger than the others, and are filled and moved with 

 powerful muscles, which enable these insects to leap with 

 facility. 



I. RUNNERS. {Orthoptera Cursoria.) 



Li English works on gardening, earwigs are reckoned among 

 obnoxious insects, various remedies are suggested to banish 



* These are the four divisions proposed by Mr. "Westwood in his " Introduc- 

 tion," who, however, applies to them their Latin names only. 



