THE SALTATORIA 193 



tinguished from the Mantida by the construction of the fore-legs, 

 which are ordinary walking limbs, and not adapted for the cap- 

 ture of prey. These insects reside chiefly upon trees and bushes, 

 the leaves of which seem to constitute their sole food; they are 

 nocturnal in their habits, becoming rigid and counterfeiting death 

 when alarmed or handled. 



The Crickets, Locusts, and Grasshoppers form a tribe (the 

 Saltatoria) of the Orthoptera, the members of which are all charac- 

 terised by the enormous development of the hind legs for leaping, 

 while the head is large and the mouth parts powerful and strongly 

 developed. The front wings are leathery and narrow, serving as 

 a protective covering to the large and more or less transparent 

 hind wings. At the end of the abdomen in the females of many 

 species we find an ovipositor, sometimes of considerable length and 

 stoutness. The males of most of the species possess the faculty of 

 producing loud chirping sounds, the means by which this is effected 

 varying in different families. The shrill music of the male House 

 Cricket is familiar to most people, and is accomplished by the rub- 

 bing of the front wings or tegmina over one another, of which 

 Professor Westwood gives the following description : " In the 

 males of the House and Field Crickets, on the internal margin, 

 about one-third of its length from the base, a thickened point is 

 observed, from whence several strong veins diverge, forming an 

 angle from this point. The strongest of these veins, which runs 

 towards the base of the left wing-cover, is found on the under 

 side to be regularly notched transversely, like a file ; when the 

 wing-covers are closed, this oblique base of the wing-cover lies 

 upon the upper surface of the corresponding part of the right wing- 

 cover ; and when a tremulous motion is imparted to the wing- 

 covers, this bar rubs against the corresponding bar of the right 

 wing-cover, and thus produces a vibration that is communicated 

 to the other parts of the wing-covers, which, being divided into a 

 number of irregular spaces, have each a distinct vibration, and 

 produce a separate sound," the combination of which produces 

 the familiar shrill, trilling chirp or stridulation. 



The Mole Cricket is a large, robust insect, now comparatively 

 rare in England, where it is confined to the southern counties, but 

 abundant in many parts of Europe. In the character of the 

 forelegs this cricket presents a singular analogy with the moles. 





