1NSECTA. 451 



Family XL. Gryllides nob. (Genus Gryllus L.) The charac- 

 rs of the section are also those of the single family. 



A. Elytra and wings deflected. 



Phalanx I. Acridii. Antennae filiform or subclavate, some- 

 imes depressed, acuminate towards the apex, mostly short or 

 loderate (not longer than half the body), with six to twenty-five 

 oints. Ocelli three. Tarsi with three joints. 



LEACH and WESTWOOD (see Introduction to modern Classif. of Ins. 

 WESTW. I. p. 438) name the insects of this group Locustidce, because 

 LINN^US had named the sub-division of his genus Gryllus, to which the 

 common grasshopper belongs, and which in great measure composes the 

 present division, Locusta. It would certainly have been better if GEOFFKOY 

 had not given the name Locusta to the sabred-grasshopper with long 

 filiform antennae (Gryllus viridissimus L., &c.). But now that this generic 

 name has been adopted by FABKICIUS, LATKEILLE and all subsequent 

 writers, we think that a change of signification would rather increase than 

 diminish the confusion of which the above-named English authors complain. 



The three simple eyes are placed in a triangle ; the two lateral, 

 between the compound eyes and the antennae, in the middle and 

 sometimes quite on that surface of the head which is directed down- 

 wards. 



Of the three joints of the tarsus the first is long and appears to 

 consist of three joints that have coalesced ; so that to these insects 

 perhaps might very properly be ascribed five joints in the tarsus, as 

 by LATKEILLE in his Families natur. du Regne animal, and by our- 

 selves in imitation of him in the first edition of this Handbook. 



The sound produced by these insects is caused by a rapid friction 

 of the thighs of the hind-feet against the shield-covers ; here the feet 

 act like the bow of a violin. The first abdominal segment is mostly 

 furnished with a drum on each side, distinguished externally by 

 a circular or lunated membranous cover. Behind this membrane is 

 situated a small vesicle filled with fluid, and behind this again a large 

 air-tube vesicle. Whilst some recognise in this an instrument for 

 sound, like that of the Cicadce, J. MULLER and V. SIEBOLD consider 

 it to be an auditory apparatus; see above pp. 282, 283. 



The borer for laying eggs does not project much, it consists 

 of four curved pieces. The eggs are mostly enveloped in a common 

 covering, adhering to each other by a tenacious frothy matter, and 

 in many species hidden beneath the earth. 



292 



