3H 6 



THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



lobes, and bearing three-jointed palpi. The prothorax is generally large, much 

 longer above than below, and often carrying a prominent crest along the middle. 

 Wings are usually present, but the hind pair are wanting in the females, or even in 

 both sexes, of some species. In their general life history the Acridiidce are proba- 

 bly much alike. The female lays her eggs at a short depth below the surface of 

 the ground, or attaches them to the stalks of grasses, and usually surrounds them, 

 in mass, with some sort of protective covering. Later on in the same year, or in 

 the spring of the year following, the larvae are excluded. They soon become ac- 

 tive, and except that they are without wings, have shorter antennae, and are of 

 smaller size and no definite color do not differ much in appearance from the per- 

 fect insects. After undergoing, as a rule, about six molts, the larvaa which are 



MIGRATORY i,ocusT OF SOUTHEAST EUROPE (Pachytylus migratorius) AND ITS 



(Natural size. ) 



hatched in the spring become adult late in the summer. It is generally in the days 

 immediately following their entry into the perfect state that the male insects are 

 loudest and most persistent in their song. Few of the British Acridiidce, of which 

 there are about a dozen, are remarkable for the brightness of their colors; nor do 

 any cause trouble by a great excess of numbers. But among the exotic species 

 there are many exhibiting vivid tints of color; and some which are capable of multi- 

 plying to such an extent as to become a serious source of mischief in the places 

 where they abound. It is to the species accustomed to assemble together, and mi- 

 grate from place to place, in vast swarms, that the name of locusts is more espe- 

 cially applied; this habit really constituting almost the only difference between the 

 locusts and many of the other grasshoppers of this family. Grasshoppers feed 



