MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 327 



tiling very like them, particularly those of B. fascicu- 

 laris, L. — A Brazilian beetle in my cabinet, belong- 

 ing to the family of the Ckridce, but not arranging well 

 under any of Latreille's genera, has curious involuted 

 suckers on its feet. — The strepsipterous genera, S/y- 

 lops, K. and Xenos, R., are remarkable for the vesicles 

 of membrane that cover the underside of their tarsi, 

 which, though flaccid in old specimens, appear to be in- 

 flated in the living animal or those that are recent^. 

 It is not improbable that these vesicles, which are large 

 and hairy, may act in some degree as suckers, and as- 

 sist it in climbing. 



The insects of the Orthoptera order are, many of 

 theni, remarkable for two kinds of appendages con- 

 nected with my present subject, being furnished both 

 with suckers and cushions. The former are concavo- 

 convex processes, varying in shape in different species — 

 being sometimes orbicular, sometimes ovate or oblong, 

 and often wedge-shaped — which terminate the tarsus 

 between the claw, one on each foot. They are of a 

 hard substance, and seem capable of free motion. In 

 -.some instances'', another minute cavity is discoverable 

 at the base of the concave part, similar to that in Chn- 

 bex lutea'^. The latter, the cushions, are usually con- 

 vex appendages, of an oblong form, and often, though 

 not always, divided in the middle by a very deep lon- 

 gitudinal furrow, attached to the underside of the tarsal 

 joints. Sir E. Home is of opinion that the object of 

 these cushions is to take off the jar, when the body of 



' Kirby in Linn. Trans, xi. 106. t. viii. /. 13. a. 



** I observed this in the hind legs of a variety of Gryllus migraloiiiis. 



'^ Fhilos. Trans. 1816. t. xix. f. 5. 



