4-48 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



M. Rambur has figured a new species, having a similar conform- 

 ation, under the name of Platyblemnus lusitanicus {Faun. En- 

 tomol. Andalus.^ 



The Acheta reticulata Fahr. (A. longicornis Afzelius) is re- 

 markable for the very great length of the antennae (three inches), and 

 for the total absence of wings, although the wing-covers are of a large 

 size ; I possess it from the shores of the river Gambia. 



The remarkable species OEcanthus pellucens (Panzer, F. I. G. 22. 

 17.) is distinguished by its delicate form, long slender palpi, and 

 4-jointed posterior tarsi : it has been given as an indigenous species 

 on the authority of a specimen in the collection of the late Mr. Ha- 

 worth. Having, however, purchased the insect at his sale, I am able 

 to state that the specimen has been misnamed, being in no manner 

 related to the insect in question. The genus Phalangopsis Serville 

 comprises several various American species, remarkable for the great 

 length of the antennae and legs, which gives them a strong resemblance 

 to spiders. Serville places them amongst the grasshoppers with long 

 antennae, but Brulle removes them to this family. The singular little in- 

 sects composing the genus Tridactylus Oliv. (Xj'a Illiger), are destitute 

 of posterior tarsi, their place being supplied by long moveable and curved 

 appendages at the tip of the tibiae ; and the antennae are very short and 

 only 10-jointed. The species are found upon the margins of rivers in the 

 south of Europe, &c., into the fine sand of which they burrow with 

 the assistance of their fore and middle legs (the tibiae of which are 

 greatly dilated), and of their mandibles, which are admirably adapted 

 for this purpose. The abdomen is furnished in both sexes with four 

 short appendages at the extremity, and the ovipositor of the female is 

 not exserted. They leap to a very great distance, their hind thighs 

 being much incrassated, and the long appendages to the tibiae as- 

 sisting materially in their saltatorial motions. M. Foudras* informs 

 us that the food of T. variegatus consists of fine particles of sand, of 

 which the particles are to be observed in their excrement ; but it is 

 evident that the small infusory animals which exist in the sand form 

 their real food. The individual of this species figured in Crochard's 



* " Observations sur le TridactyJe Panac/j(?, Lyon, 1 829, 8vo. ; also see Charpentier, 

 HorcB EntomoL, the great French work on Egypt; Percheron, Gen. des Ins. Orih. 

 pi. 1. ; Guerin's Icon. R, An. Ins, pi. 54. ; Dumerll, Cons. Gen. pi. 25. ; Coquebert, 

 Iconogr. pi. 21. ; Say, Journ. Acad. Scienc. Philad. vol. iv. p. 310. ; Audouin and 

 Brulle, vol. ix. p. 198, 



