14 



POSTEMBRYONIC STAGES. 



With the exception of the dark-brown maxillae and mandibles the 

 newly hatched changa is snow white at emergence. A light oval area 

 covers the greater part of each compound eye. Within an hour after 

 hatching takes place the margins of the head, prothorax, legs, and 

 antennal segments become dirty white, later changing gradually to a 

 light gray. The abdomen is greenish white, acquiring a gray color 

 more slowly and finally remaining lighter than the other parts of 

 the body. 



After leaving the egg the young changa is very active and begins 

 feeding almost at once, not requiring care from an adult as a Eu- 

 ropean mole cricket (Gryttotalpa sp.) is said to do. 1 Its diet con- 

 sists of plant food, the weaker members from the same egg cluster, 

 and perhaps an occasional egg. As the food requirements are small 

 during this instar and the three stages following it, no noticeable 

 damage is done to plants. One changa used in a starvation experi- 

 ment survived the first instar without any food and died 22 days 

 after hatching while in the act of the molting for the first time. At 

 first the little changas are gregarious, but they soon wander off to the 

 main gallery or make tunnels of their own. 



In the first stage the changa is about 6 millimeters long, not in- 

 cluding antennae or cerci (PI. Ill, fig. 2). The pronotal shield meas- 

 ures about 1.9 millimeters in median length and about 1.6 millimeters 

 in width. The antenna consist of 34 segments ; no ocelli are present. 

 The wing pads are not apparent on the first two abdominal segments. 

 The tympanum is present on the foreleg. The foreleg itself is more 

 slender than in later instars and has not the high specialization for 

 fossorial life than it later acquires. 



The succeeding stages of the changa resemble the first stage more 

 or less, practically the only differences being in size and in develop- 

 ment of the forelegs and of the wings. The wing pads are first no- 

 ticeable in the second instar as small lateral projections of the dorsal 

 plates of the first two abdominal segments. These budlike wing 

 pads increase in size with each succeeding molt and become plainly 

 noticeable in the fifth instar. The number of antennal joints increases 

 with each instar from the 34 found in the newly hatched changa to 

 well over 80 in the eighth-stage individual. The ocelli first become 

 noticeable in the second stage, when they can be seen as elongate, 

 hyaline, raised areas. The sternal tooth on the abdomen of the male 

 can be discerned in the sixth stage, appearing as a small knoblike 

 projection on the middle of the posterior margin of the eighth plate. 



Sharp, D. Insects, I. Cambridge Natural History, vol. 5, p. 336. London, 1895. 



