LOCUSTIDAE 32 1 



ing from the day to the night song at the mere passing of a 

 cloud, and returning to the old note when the sky is clear. By 

 imitating the two songs in the daytime the grasshoppers can be 

 made to respond to either at will : at night they have but one 

 note." 



Although but little is known as to the habits of Locustidae, 

 it is ascertained that they are less exclusively herbivorous in 

 their food habits than the Acridiidae are ; many seem to prefer 

 a mixed diet. Locusta mridissima will eat various leaves and 

 fruits, besides, small quantities of flesh. It has been recorded 

 that a specimen in confinement mastered a humble-bee, extracted 

 with its mandibles the honey-bag, and ate this dainty, leaving 

 the other parts of the bee untouched. Many of the Locustidae 

 are believed to be entirely carnivorous. Brunner considers a 

 minority to be exclusively phytophagous. The species very 

 rarely increase to large numbers ; this, however, occurs some- 

 times with Orphania denticctuda and Barhitistes yersini in 

 Europe, and Anahrus purpurascens in North America. We 

 have already mentioned that the eggs of some species are 

 deposited in parts of plants, and of others in the earth. The 

 British Meconema varium deposits its eggs in the galls of Cyni'ps 

 in the autumn ; these eggs do not hatch till the following 

 spring. Xiphidium ensiferum has somewhat similar habits in 

 North America, the gall selected for the reception of the eggs 

 being the scales formed by a species of Cecidomyia on the leaves 

 of willows. It has been ascertained that the development of 

 the embryo in the last - named species is commenced in the 

 autumn, but is suspended during the winter, being only com- 

 pleted in the following spring, eight or nine months afterwards. 

 We owe to Wheeler ^ a memoir on the embryology of this Insect. 



Some of the species have the peculiar habit of dwelling in 

 caves. This is especially the case with the members of the tribe 

 Stenopelmatides (Fig. 197), which frequently possess enormously 

 long antennae and legs, and are destitute of alar organs and 

 ears. The species with this habit, though found in the most 

 widely separated parts of the world, have a great general 

 resemblance, so that one would almost suppose the specimens 

 found in the caves of Austria, in the Mannnoth cave of Ken- 

 tucky, and in the rock -cavities of New Zealand to be one 



1 Wheeler, J. Morpkol. viii. 1893. 

 VOL. V Y 



