INSECTA. 451 
Family XL. Gryllides nob. (Genus Gryllus L.) The charac- 
ters of the section are also those of the single family. 
A. Elytra and wings deflected. 
Phalanx I. Acridit. Antenne filiform or subclavate, some- é 
times depressed, acuminate towards the apex, mostly short or 
moderate (not longer than half the body), with six to twenty-five 
joints. Ocelli three. Tarsi with three joints. 
Leach and Westwoop (see Introduction to modern Classif. of Ins. 
WESTW. I. p. 438) name the insects of this group Locustide, because 
Linyzus had named the sub-division of his genus Gryllus, to which the 
common grasshopper belongs, and which in great measure composes the 
present division, Locusta. It would certainly have been better if GEOFFROY 
had not given the name Locusta to the sabred-grasshopper with long 
filiform antennz (Gryllus viridissimus L., &c.). But now that this generic 
name has been adopted by Fasricius, LATREILLE and all subsequent 
writers, we think that a change of signification would rather increase than 
diminish the confusion of which the above-named English authors complain, 
The three simple eyes are placed in a triangle; the two lateral, 
between the compound eyes and the antenne, in the middle and 
sometimes quite on that surface of the head which is directed down- 
wards. 
Of the three joints of the tarsus the first is long and appears to 
consist of three joints that have coalesced; so that to these insects 
perhaps might very properly be ascribed five joints in the tarsus, as 
by Latrerize in his Familles natur. du Régne animal, and by our- 
selves in imitation of him in the first edition of this Handbook. 
The sound produced by these insects is caused by a rapid friction 
of the thighs of the hind-feet against the shield-covers; here the feet 
act like the bow of a violin. The first abdominal segment is mostly 
furnished with a drum on each side, distinguished externally by 
a circular or lunated membranous cover. Behind this membrane is 
situated a small vesicle filled with fluid, and behind this again a large 
air-tube vesicle. Whilst some recognise in this an instrument for 
sound, like that of the Cicadw, J. MUiuer and V. Srezoip consider 
it to be an auditory apparatus; see above pp. 282, 283. 
The borer for laying eggs does not project much, it consists 
of four curved pieces. The eggs are mostly enveloped in a common 
covering, adhering to each other by a tenacious frothy matter, and 
in many species hidden beneath the earth. 
29—2 
