454< MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



abound in boggy places among the long grass and rushes at the 

 back of the Isle of Wight. The former species is excedingly wary, 

 running down to the roots of rushes on the least alarm. As they do 

 not, however, assemble in swarms, nor are so numerous, either in 

 species or individuals as the Locustidse, they do not become so 

 formidable as those insects ; when confined together in a small box 

 they will devour each other ; and on one occasion I placed a specimen 

 of the great green species in a box, together with one of its hind 

 legs, which it had accidentally jerked off, and on opening the box 

 the next morning, half of the leg was devoured. De Geer also states, 

 that a specimen of D. verrucivorus which died was eaten by its 

 companions in captivity. These insects are exceedingly timid, ceas- 

 ing their stridulation on the slightest noise. 



The young insects, when hatched, resemble their parents in form 

 as well as activity ; they are, however, destitute of wings and wing- 

 covers. Their tarsi consist of the same number of joints as in the 

 imago. In the pupa state (^^. 55. 16. pupa of G. griseus with 

 the tips of the antennae cut off), the organs of flight appear as rudi- 

 ments upon the back of the second and third segments of the body. 

 Zetterstedt describes the male pupa as having the wing-covers as long 

 as the abdomen ( Orth. Suec. p. 60.) ; but there are some species which 

 never acquire the slightest rudiments of wings; they are, nevertheless, 

 able to perpetuate their species, as well as others which only acquire 

 rudimental wing-covers. 



These insects are ordinarily of large size, the common great green 

 grasshopper of our country, Phasgonura viridissima (J^. Gryllus v. 

 Linn.), being one of the largest native insects, which is about two 

 inches long, and measures three inches and a half in the expanse of 

 its wings. It is of a fine green colour, with the ovipositor long and 

 straight. The eggs, which were deposited during the preceding 

 autumn, are not hatched until spring ; two months after which the 

 insects cast their skin ; before which time no sexual difference was to 

 be observed in the young individuals : the ovipositor of the female now 

 appears, and after several additional (two onlj^, according to some au- 

 thors) moultings the insects arrive at perfection. RiJsel has published 

 a complete series of figures relative to this and the following species 

 in their different states. (^Ins. Beliist. GriUen. t. viii. — xi.) The Dec- 

 ticus verrucivorus, a rare British species, is employed by the Svvedish 

 peasants to bite the warts on their hands ; the black fluid which it 



