4 THE AMEKICAN MONTHLY [January, 



zoological study of auimals iucludes such subjects as have been 

 touched upon in our example of the grasshoper, viz : Anatomy, 

 or the construction of animals ; physiology , or the action of the or- 

 gans ; onbryology, or the changes gone through by the animal 

 in developing from the egg. 



III. vSoME Other Insects. 



The scientific study of zoology takes a somewhat thorough 

 study of some animal form as a point of departure toward the 

 study of other animals, and the studies then become comparative. 

 After having become familiar with the grasshopper, it will be of 

 advantage for the student of the subject to compare the grass- 

 hopper, at least as far as regards the outward plan and subdi- 

 vision of the body, with other familiar animals which are similar 

 enough to permit comparisons. 



1. The Cricket (Fig lo), Gryllus abbreviatus, is an animal 

 which in many respects resembles the grasshopper, and yet does 

 not look very much like one. It lives in grassy, sandy places, 

 beneath dry boards ; sometimes it hops short distances, but more 

 commonly runs very rapidly, much faster in fact than a grass- 

 hojDper can, and it never flies. Its body presents* the same prin- 

 cipal and minor external parts. There are three regions : head, 

 thorax, and abdomen. The head, moreover, presents compound 

 eyes, antennse, and mouth-parts, two lips, and two pairs of side 

 jaws, and furthermore the maxilla has 5-jointed palpus, and 

 the labium a 3-jointed palpus, and the jaws are used for 

 biting. The thorax is divided into a prothorax with pronotum 

 and one pair of legs, and a region behind this bearing two pairs 

 of legs and two pairs of modified wings, anterior ones somewhat 

 as in the grasshopper, and hind wings very small and rudimentary. 

 The abdomen is jointed and tipped posteriorly in the female by 

 extremelv long ovipositors. The hind legs of the cricket are 

 much larger than the others, just as in the grasshopper, but they 

 are not used in jumping to any such extent as in the grasshopper. 



2. The May-beetle (Fig. 12), Lachnostema fusca (see 

 Packard's Entomol. for Beginners, p. 94), is a creature which 

 flies in the evening at dusk in early summer. Its large brown 

 body and awkward movements and buzzing sound, as well as its 

 attraction toward the light, make it a familiar animal to nearly 

 everybody. It looks very unlike a grasshopper or cricket, and 

 yet on close inspection it is found to correspond with them in 

 almost every part of its body ; not indeed in the shape of parts, 

 but in the number and relative situation of the parts. The main 

 divisions of the body are head, thorax, and abdomen. The head, 

 furthermore, bears compound eyes, one pair of antennte, lips and 

 biting jaws, the latter being mandibles, and maxillae, the maxillcE 



•These condensed descriptions should be verified by examination of specimens with draw- 

 ing. 



