ORTHOPTERA. 9! 



places generally. The body is shining dark brown, thick, 

 and arched upward in the thorax and front abdomen, 

 while the head is curved downward between the front legs. 

 The antennae are long and thread-like, and are usually 

 carried backward over the body, when not in use to ac- 

 quaint the insect with its surroundings. (Fig. 38.) Their 

 haunts are not such as to give one an idea of the food 

 habits; but as they seem to be nocturnal in their habits 

 the indications are that they eat both animal and vegetable 

 food. The katydids of the lowland regions and the plains 



a* 



FIG. 38. A cricket-like grasshopper, Anabrus simplex. (Howard, after Riley.} 



are green-bodied, green-winged Locustidae. They are 

 nocturnal and are hard to find; a pair of sharp eyes 

 searching around vines or trees or bushes late in the after- 

 noon of a summer day will possibly be able to find them. 

 Some of them have wing-covers so closely resembling 

 leaves both in form and color, and even venation, that 

 seeing is oftentimes not believing. This is one of the cases 

 of protective resemblance, the protection sought being 

 from birds. The scheme does not always work, however; 

 one could not spend a single afternoon among the feath- 

 ered tribe and the insect folk without discovering this 

 fact. But it is only natural to suppose that birds have 

 not been napping in the midst of the schemes of their 

 insect neighbors, but have pitted their own sharpened 

 wits against the various devices employed against them. 



