568 INSECT A ORDERS ORTHOPTERA AND NEUROPTERA. 



Locusts and 

 Grasshoppers 



(Locustidce). 



which many Orthopterous insects possess in this odd situation are very 

 conspicuous, opening either in a large oval depression, or in a mere slit. 

 The last family of the Orthoptera, the Locustidce, which comprises the true 

 locusts and grasshoppers, may be distinguished at once by the short antennae. 

 The ovipositor is inconspicuous, and the hind legs are long 

 and slender, the hind tibiae being generally fucnished with a 

 double row of spines above. Our common grasshoppers leap 

 rather than fly, but the locusts, some of which visit us occa- 

 sionally, though they probably never breed here, are very 

 strong on the wing. The body and tegmina are generally brown, but the wings 

 are often red, blue or green. The most destructive species in Asia and Africa 

 are about five or six inches in expanse ; but the largest South American 



locusts measure nearly a foot across 

 the tegmina. In some of the earlier 

 sub-families, the antennae are very 

 broad and flattened, but in the more 

 typical species they are cylindrical. 

 These chiefly inhabit the warmer parts 

 of Asia and Africa. Destructive lo- 

 custs are not always large ; for in- 

 stance, those which ravage Cyprus and 

 the United States are small species, 

 not expanding "more than a couple of 

 inches across the wings. Species of 

 about the same size, with blue and 

 red wings, are common on the Conti- 

 nent, in pine forests, and vineyards, 

 etc. ; and the blue-winged grasshopper, 

 (Edlpoda ccerulescens (Linn.), is said to be sometimes found in England. 



Locusts are equally destructive in all their stages after quitting the egg, for 

 the young locusts can leap, though not fly, and they advance across the country 

 in vast hordes in this manner, before they acquire their wings, and they have no 

 quiescent pupa stage. No one can form any conception of the meaning of an 

 invasion of locusts who has not actually seen one ; and at present, schemes 

 are in progress for checking their ravages in Natal by the use of specially 

 constructed guns and mortars, in addition to other means. In America and 

 Australia the term "locust" is frequently but improperly applied to the Cka- 

 didce, which belong to quite a different order of insects. 



Fig. 46. BLUE-WINGED GRASSHOPPER 

 (CEdipoda ccerulescens). 



ORDER NEUROPTERA (LACE-WINGED INSECTS). 



Linnaeus applied the term Neuroplera, or Nerve-wings, to an Order in- 

 cluding a number of conspicuous insects of rather large size. They have strong 

 jaws, four wings, similar in texture, and generally covered with a network 

 of very numerous nervures ; incomplete metamorphoses, and carnivorous 

 habits. 



Several very discordant groups are included under the term Neuroptera ; 

 and although we have treated of the Trichoptera, Mallophaga, Thysanura^ 



