GREEN GRASSHOPPERS (LOCUST/D.E). r53 



as much care on its long, graceful antenna; as many a 

 maiden does upon her abundant tresses, the antennae 

 being drawn between the jaws and smoothed by the 

 palpi, with evident satisfaction. But, in time, in his ex- 

 perience, confinement produces disastrous effects. He 

 reared three successive broods in captivity, and, after the 

 first year, the insects gradually deteriorated, so that the 

 eggs of the third generation — the fourth spring — failed 

 to hatch. 



These katydids feed upon the foliage of the trees 

 which they inhabit, but are rarely injurious to plants : 

 Locustidse are less exclusively herbivorous than the 

 Acrid iidse are ; many seem to partake of a mixed diet. 

 A large number are believed to be entirely carnivorous, 

 fewer to be solely phytophagous. It occasionally hap- 

 pens that they increase to large numbers in Europe, 

 and in America in the case of a member ot the genus 

 Anabrus, which is sometimes destructive to crops. 



The Tegmina resemble Leaves. 



Many insects of this family are of a green colour, in 

 assimilation to that of their habitat ; the green of 

 Locusta vii'idissuna is wonderfully similar to that of 

 the herbage amongst which it lives. The wing-covers 

 in many present a most singular resemblance to leaves, 



