Specimen Page of Staveley's Insects. 



WINGS OF INSECTS, AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION. 43 

 very bioad, the outline being rather more than the quarter 



Fig. 17. 



of a circle. Tlie veins radiate 

 from a point in the thickened 

 part of the membrane, and the 

 wing is packed first by being 

 closed together like a fan and 

 then transversely folded in two 

 places (fig. 17). From this 

 complicated double folding is a. Wing of Earwig magnified, 

 derived the name of the order ^- do. do. natural size. 

 , 1 • 1 ^1 . , , c. do. do. closed, 



"to which the earwigs belong, 



viz., EuPLEXOPTERA (iv, well, ttXcktos, folded ; tttc/dov, wing. 

 For figures of Order II., Eujjlexoptera, see Plate IV., 



To the earwig, the grasshopper, cricket, locust, and cock- 

 roach (or blackbeetle of our kitchen) succeed. Eesembling 

 the earwig in the fan-like folding of the hind winjj-, they 

 differ from it in having no transverse folding (fig. 18), and 

 from this character of the 

 wing is derived the name 

 of the order under which 

 these insects are ranged ; 

 namely, Orthoptera, or 

 straight - winged (opOos, 

 straight ; inepov, a wing.) 

 The fore wings, although 



Fig. 18. 



Wing of Grasshopper {Acrida 

 viridissima). 



much thickened, are less thick and horny than those of 

 either the beetles or the earwig, and are useful in flight. 



And here we come upon a most curious little appara- 

 tus. The merry chirp of the house cricket and of the 

 grasshopper are amongst our most familiar sounds, yet 

 few inquire the nature of the instrument by which the 

 little ciealure produces its pleasant music. This, the pri- 



