CHAPTER VII 

 ORTHOPTERA 



NEARLY all the groups of insects classed as Orthoptera 

 are well known. This is probably more true of this order 

 than of any other. Included here are the Grasshoppers 

 or Locusts, the Katydids, the Crickets and the Roaches. Less 

 common are the Walking-sticks and Praying mantids or 

 Rear-horses. 



37. General Characteristics. Some species and indi- 

 viduals of other species are wingless, but there are typi- 

 ically four wings. Of these, the front pair is narrow and 

 leathery and the hind pair broad, folded fan-like and con- 

 cealed and protected by the front pair when at rest. The 

 mouth-parts are well developed and formed for chewing, 

 grasshoppers having been accused, with some truth, of 

 attacking pitch-fork handles and the edges of scythes.* 

 Orthoptera develop directly and as a rule the young re- 

 semble the adults in form and habits. 



38. Acrididae. The grasshoppers, or true locusts, in- 

 clude the worst insect pests the world has known. Records 

 of them appear in the earliest history and their ravages 

 are recorded from all parts of the world. No insects have 

 ever produced such wide-spread desolation and misery as 

 the various migratory forms of these insects. Just here 

 it may be noted that the terms grasshopper and locust 



* The author can vouch for the fork handle but not for the 

 scythe, although farmers have told him in good faith that grass- 

 hoppers dulled their scythes by gnawing the edges. 



48 



