154 



Myrmecophila. — Sph^rium, Charp. 



The Myrmecophilae have no wings; and the body is oval. With 

 respect to their antennae, and the absence of simple eyes, they resem- 

 ble the true Grylli. The posterior thighs are extremely large. 



The only species known — Blatta acervortim, Panz. Faun. 

 Insect. Germ., LXVIII, 24— lives in ant-hills*. 



Sometimes the elytra and wings are tectiform, and the tarsi are 

 quadriarticulated. The antennae are always very long and setaceous. 

 The mandibles are less dentated, and the galea is wider than in the 

 Grylli. The females always have a projecting ovipositor, com- 

 pressed, and in the form of a sabre. 



They have but two caeca, like the preceding Insects, but the biliary 

 vessels surround the middle of the intestine, and are inserted directly 

 into it. 



These Orthoptera are herbivorous, and form the genus 



LocusTA, Geoff., Fab. — Gryllus tettigonia, Lm. 

 Such, for instance, are the 



L. viridissima, Fab.; Roes., Insect., II, GrylL, x, xi. Two 

 inches long ; green and immaculate ; ovipositor of the female 

 straight. 



L.verrucivora, Fab. ; Roes., lb., viii. An inch and a half long; 

 brown; elytra spotted Avith brown or blackish ; ovipositor of the 

 female recurved. It bites with considerable severity, and it is 

 said that the Swedish peasants are in the habit of making it bite 

 the warts on their hands, and that in consequence of those ex- 

 crescences receiving into the wound the black and bilious fluid 

 poured into it by the Insect, they become desiccated and disap- 

 pear. 



Several species of this genus are apterous, or have but very 

 short elytra. Such is the 



L. ephippiger, Fab., Ross., Faun. Etrusc., II, viii, 3, 4t. 



* It is the subject, if I mistake not, of a Memoir from the pen of M. Paul 

 Sa-vi, 



t This species, and some others, in which both sexes are almost apterous, or pre- 

 sent at most but very short elytra resembling rounded and arched scales, form the 

 genus Ephippiger of my Fam. Nat. du Regn. Anim. That of Anisoptera is 

 composed of species, the males of which are winged, and the females apterous or 

 merely furnished with very short elytra; such are the L. tlorsalis, brachyptera., of M. 

 Toussaint Cliarpentier. The species provided with ordinary elytra and wings, iu 

 ■which the antennae are simple, and the front is not elevated pyramidically, form the 

 genus Gryllus proper. Such are the first two species above described. Add to 

 them the Lccmta varia, Fab. ; Panz., lb., XXXIII, 1 ; — L. fusca lb., ii ; — L. cly- 

 peala, lb., iv ; — L. denticulata, lb., v. His Gryllus proboscideiis, lb., XXII, 18, is 

 the Panorpa hiemalis. 



See also De Geer, Herbstein, Donovan and Stoll, Santeralle a sabre, pi. i — xii ; 

 Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect. Ill, p. 100. 



Those Grylli, in which the front is elevated in the manner of a pyramid or cone, 

 have been generically distinguished by Thunberg, under the name of Conocepha- 



