143 ORDER ORTHOPTERA. 



Mantidse. 



This family, which succeeds the cursores or runners in the natural arrangement, consists 

 of insects technically called raptores or graspers. The larger and more remarkable species, 

 of which the Mantis is one, are not found in New- York or New-England, but smaller kinds 

 •re occasionally met with. Plate vii, fig. 4, exliibits the structure of an insect similar to the 

 mantis, which takes its prey by grasping or seizing it with its forelegs. Its habits, too, are 

 much like those of the mantis : it remains motionless upon a twig or limb of a bush, in a 

 sitting posture with its front parts elevated, until a desirable object Comes within its reach. 

 The family are all carnivorous, and hence aid in diminishing the number of vegetable 

 feeders. 



Pliasmidae. 



The insects of this family {Jlmhulatoria, the walkers) are distinguished by the undeveloped 

 state of the wings, or by their total absence. One or two of these remarkable animals are 

 found in New-England and New- York : they are commonly called vmlkingsticks, and the 

 ' most common species is the 



Spectrum femoratcm (Say). ( Plate vii, figs. 1,2.) 



Apterous : intermediate thighs dilated, and furnished with a spine near the tip ; posterior 

 also spinous. 



The color of the male is greenish with a mixture of brown, especially on the forelegs 

 and the tibia and tarsi of the others : abdomen equalling the body, and furnished with 

 nine segments, terminated with two curved appendages, female brownish, thick, with the 

 trunk and abdomen nearly twice their size in the male : legs greenish, but less so than in 

 the male ; the thighs less dilated. 



This species is rather common, in the months of August and September, in the vicinity 

 of Albany and in Western Massachusetts. 



Saltatores. 



This section (Saltatoria, the jumpers) is represented by the common cricket, and embraces 

 those insects whose tarsi are three-jointed, antennae setaceous, head large, with a convex 

 crown, and inserted deeply into the thorax ; with ovate eyes, and two or three ocelli. The 

 thorax is truncated in front ; elytra horizontal ; body elongate ; wings folded longitudinal- 

 ly ; abdomen cylindric ; legs stout and short ; tai-si without foot-cushions between the 

 claws. 



