THE GRASSHOPPERS. 155 



sometimes with a tinge of green, and the wings are rather 

 longer than the covers. Some of these insects have been 



O 



sent to me by a gentleman who found them piercing and 

 laying eggs in the branches of a peach-tree. Another cor- 

 respondent, who is interested in the tobacco culture in Con- 

 necticut, informed me that they injured the plant by eating 

 holes in the leaves. 



2. GRASSHOPPERS. (G-ryllidce.') 



Grasshoppers, properly so called, as before stated, are those 

 jumping orthopterous insects which have four joints to all 

 their feet, long bristle-formed antennae, and in which the 

 females are provided with a piercer, flattened at the sides, 

 and somewhat resembling a sword or cimeter in shape. The 

 wing-covers slope downwards at the sides of the body, and 

 overlap only a little on the top of the back near the thorax. 

 This overlapping portion, which forms a long triangle, is 

 traversed, in the males, by strong projecting veins, between 

 which, in many of them, are membranous spaces as transpar- 

 ent as glass. The sounds emitted by the males, and varying 

 according to the species, are produced by the friction of these 

 overlapping portions together. 



In Massachusetts there is one kind of grasshopper which 

 forms a remarkable exception to the other native insects of 

 this family ; and, as it does not seem to have been named 

 or described by any author, although by no means an un- 

 common insect, it may receive a passing notice here. It is 

 found only under stones and rubbish in woods, has a short 

 thick body, and remarkably stout hind thighs, like a cricket, 

 but is entirely destitute of wing-covers and wings, even when 

 arrived at maturity. It belongs to M. Serville's genus Pha- 

 langopsis, and I propose to call it Phalangopsis maculata,* 



* Gryttus maculntus, Harris. Catalogue of the Insects of Massachusetts. 5 



[ 8 According to the authority of Erichson, it was previously described with 

 the name Phalangopsis lapidicola, Burm UHLER.] 



