ORTHOPTERA. 115 



are also covered by a pair of thicker wing-like members, which, 

 in the locusts and grasshoppers, are long and narrow, and lie 

 lengthwise on the sides of the body, sloping outwards on each 

 side like the roof of a house ; in the cockroaches, these upper 

 wings or wing-covers, are broader, almost oval, and lie horizon- 

 tally on the top of the back, overlapping on their inner edges ; 

 and in the crickets, the wing-covers, when closed, are placed like 

 those of cockroaches, but have a narrow outer border, which is 

 folded perpendicularly downwards so as to cover the sides of the 

 body also. 



All the Orthopterous insects are provided with transversely 

 movable jaws, more or less like those of beetles, but they do not 

 undergo a complete transformation in coming to maturity. The 

 young, in fact, often present a close resemblance to the adult in- 

 sects in form, and differ from them chiefly in wanting wings. 

 They move about and feed precisely like their parents, but change 

 their skins repeatedly before they come to their full size. The 

 second stage in the progress of the Orthopterous insects to ma- 

 turity, is not, like that of beetles, a state of inactivity and rest, in 

 which the insect loses the grub-like or larva form which it had 

 when hatched from the egg, and becomes a pupa or chrysalis, 

 more nearly resembling the form of a beetle, but soft, whitish, 

 and with its undeveloped wings and limbs incased in a thin trans- 

 parent skin which impedes all motion. On the contrary, the Or- 

 thoptera, in the pupa state, do not differ from the young and 

 from the old insects, except in having the rudiments of wings and 

 wing-covers projecting, like little scales, from the back near the 

 thorax. These pupae are active and voracious, and increase 

 greatly in size, which is not the case with the insects that are sub- 

 ject to a complete transformation, for such never eat or grow in 

 the pupa state. When fully grown, they cast off their skins for 

 the sixth or last time, and then appear in the adult or perfect state, 

 fully provided with all their members, with the exception of a few 

 kinds which remain wingless throughout their whole lives. The 

 slight changes to which the Orthoptera are subject, consist of 

 nothing more than a successive series of moidtings, during which 

 their wings are gradually developed. These changes may re- 

 ceive the name of imperfect or incomplete transformation, in con- 



