tn the Posterior Limbs of the Orthoptera saltatoria. 235 



jumping-legs. Difficulties presented themselves especially at 

 the last moult, when the Orthopteron mast free his wings 

 from their covering. His big hind legs would have allowed 

 him to brace himself up to his work more effectively, giving 

 him a valuable means of support at the time when he had to 

 make his laborious efforts to free himself from his chitinous 

 envelope. Almost all die before having rid themselves of this 

 wrapper. Among the rare survivors, with one or two excep- 

 tions, I have only seen completely disabled insects with wings 

 all crumpled, and sometimes even atrophied, creeping along 

 with difficulty. These points were specially striking in 

 Phylloptera laurifoUa. 



Supposing for a moment that instead of being safe from 

 their numerous enemies, as they were in the cages where I had 

 reared them, these damaged Orthoptera had been left to them- 

 selves. It now becomes evident that the few examples 

 which had managed to survive the dangers presented by the 

 process of moulting would have, in spite of this fact, but 

 little chance of reaching the perfect state. Let us admit even 

 that some among them, having escaped all their enemies, had 

 attained their complete development after having undergone 

 the last and most formidable moult. It still seems impossible 

 to me that these insects would be able to pair. In the first 

 place, whatever their sex, the absence of their big legs would 

 completely prohibit it; in the second place, granting once 

 more that it was not found to be an insurmountable obstacle, 

 it is only right to admit that the mutilated insects in question 

 would be left on one side by reason of the sexual selection 

 which appears to have been clearly proved among Orthoptera 

 saltatoria *. Finally, among certain of the Orthoptera with 

 fighting tendencies, such as the crickets, which not only 

 quarrel over the females, but engage in morlal combats for 

 the possession of the hole which serves them for a dwelling, 



* See Cliarles Darwin, ' The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection ' 

 (French edition, lh'd\, pp. 311-318). Among the most interesting cases 

 quoted in this book occurs that of Pachytylus migratorius. Korte has 

 pointed out the choice exercised by the female with respect to the male. 

 The male of this species when paired with a female shows his anger by 

 stridulations when another male comes near. If the musical apparatus 

 plays a part in sexual selection, Orthoptera saltatoria deprived of their 

 jumping-legs, and which in spite of this have reached the perfect state, 

 must be in a condition of great inferiority when compared with their 

 rivals, for, as I have already remarked, their wings being quite bruised 

 and sometimes even atrophied, their musical apparatus is incapable of 

 jictiug. In the Acrididse especially the emission of musical notes is 

 rendered quite impossible, as the femora of the jumping-legs take part in 

 their production. 



