LOCUSTS AND GRASSHOPPERS {ACRIDIID.-E). 139 



they are in the male of this insect. It would appear 

 probable it has the power of producing two, if not 

 more, distinct sounds. 



In habit it is exceedingly sedentary, and apparently 

 seeks safety in its protective resemblance and its 

 stridulation, rather than by any attempt at flight. Its 

 wings indeed are totally unfit for movement, being quite 

 rudimentary, and the posterior legs seem equally un- 

 adapted for this purpose ; they are enormous in breadth, 

 dilated more than in other AcridiidaD. When Methone 

 walks, it does so by means of its four anterior legs 

 alone, on which it moves raised up as if on stilts, when 

 probably the hind pair drag useless along the ground. 

 In repose these odd hind legs are pressed close to the 

 sides of the body, and the tibiae are hid, the insect 

 then — its colours being those of the desert sands — 

 resembling, so closely as to be mistaken for, a clod of 

 earth. 



Among others modified to an extraordinary extent 

 for their conditions of life, there is the curious Tj'achy- 

 petra dn/o, another South African species. It lives 

 among stones, and Trimen says it resembles with such 

 precision the appearance of the stones that he had 

 much difficulty to detect it. He noticed that in certain 

 spots, often only a few square yards in extent, where 

 the stones lying on the ground were darker, lighter, or 

 more mottled than those generally prevalent, the 



