91 

 as far beyond the body as its own length, and curling in a most singular manner, being very curiously 

 folded together. Body with two short tails placed at its extremity. Legs longer than usual with insects 

 of this kind ; each of the thighs being furnished with spines, and also the tips of the tibiae. Tarsi four- 

 pointed, besides the claws ; those of the fore and middle legs having on each side two small appendages 

 like flaps. Hinder tarsi furnished on each side with five of these flaps, some of which appear moveable, 

 others fixed, as represented in the plate. 



ACHETA MEMBRANACEA. 



Plate XLIII. fig. -2. 



Order: Orthciptera. Section: Saltatoria. Family: Achetidoe. 



Genus. Acheta, Fabr. Gryllus Acheta, Linn. Gryllus, Latr. 



AcHETA MEMBRANACEA. Luteo-fusca, pronoti annulis duobus nigris, alis corpore longiuribus, taisis posticis 



quinque spinosis. (Long. Corp. 2 line. 3 liii.) 

 Syn. Gryllus membranaceus, Dniri/, Apj). vol. -2. 

 Habitat: Bay of Honduras, Musquito Shore. 



Antennae long, filiforai. General colour yellowish brown. Thorax with two rings, almost black. 

 Wings extending beyond their cases, terminating in two tails that are folded ; each representing a two- 

 edged sword. Abdomen furnished with two bristles. At the tips of the hinder tibiaj are placed five 

 spines, one being quite small ; the middle ones have four, that are small ; and the fore ones one. 



From the information furnished to Mr. Drury by Mr. Smeathman we learn that the 

 children in Africa are, at the proper season, very busily employed digging out of the ground 

 the females, when full of eggs, of a species exactly the size and form of this, on which they 

 make an agreeable repast, roasting generally the whole animal, but eating only the eggs, 

 which are contained in a bag, and resemble part of the roe of a large fish, deeming it 

 very delicate food. These, like the European crickets, make a contmual and noisy chirp- 

 ing all day long ; and the open parts of the country are never without this music, which 

 ceases neither night nor day. Some sing only in the day, others only in the night, and 

 others again are never silent. Of those which sing only in the night, one small species, 

 about the size of the Gryllus Campestris of Linnaeus, salhes out of its retreat early in the 

 evening, making so loud and shrill a chirping that it may be said to pierce the ear ; and, 

 as certainly as it sings within doors, it silences a whole company. It fills a large room so 

 completely with its note, which is something like the sound caused by rubbing a tobacco- 

 pipe round the edge of a wdne-glass, that those unaccustomed to it cannot tell how to direct 

 their search after it. When they are looking for it, the noise will sometimes cease for half 

 a minute, and begin again, when the searchers will be as much at a loss as ever. The 

 black people, however, who have perhaps the most accurate ears in the world, readily find 

 them, and generally without mercy put an end to their lives and their notes together. 

 Different species sing their wild notes among the distant banks, and are heard in the rivers 

 through the mangroves, though those trees often form a thick wood between the navigable 



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