568 ORTHOPTEEA. 



from the larvae in having large wing-pads. On the basal joints 

 of the abdomen are two cavities covered each with a mem- 

 brane, and containing a vesicle filled with liquid, which is sup- 

 plied by a nerve sent from the third thoracic ganglion. They 

 were considered by Latreille and Burmeister to be vocal or- 

 gans, but more correctly it would seem, by J. Miiller and von 

 Siebold as organs of hearing. 



This family embraces insects of gigantic proportions. The 

 migratory locust (Acrydium migratorium) is a most destructive 

 insect from its voracity and immense numbers. Swarms of 

 grasshoppers are common in the far West where they commit 

 great havoc in crops. Our Caloptenus femur-rubrum has at 

 times, though not of late years, gone in immense swarms. 

 The larvae of many species live through the winter, and appear 

 often in March on unusually warm days. 



In the genus Opomala the acute antennae are broad and 

 flattened at base. In 0. brachyptera Scudder the fore wings 

 are but little more than one-half the length of the body. In 

 Chloedltis the hinder edge of the pronotum is square or 

 rounded; there are no foveolae on the vertex, and the lateral 

 carinae of the pronotum is parallel, or quite nearly so. 



Chloedltis conspersa Harris is light bay, sprinkled with black 

 spots, with a black line on the head behind each eye, and ex- 

 tending upon the thorax. The front wings are pale yellowish 

 brown, and the hind shanks are pale red, with the spines tipped 

 with black. Mr. S. I. Smith states that the structure of the 

 ovipositor of this species is "beautifully adapted to a remark- 

 able habit in the manner of depositing the eggs, which seems 

 not to have been noticed before among Orthoptera. The eggs 

 are deposited in old logs, in the under sides of boards, or in 

 any soft wood lying among the grass which these insects 

 inhabit. By means of the anal appendages the female exca- 

 vates in the wood a smooth round hole about an eighth of an 

 inch in diameter. This hole is at first almost perpendicular 

 but is turned rapidly off in the direction of the grain of the 

 wood, and runs nearly parallel with, and about three-eighths 

 of an inch from the surface ; the whole length of the hole 

 being an inch or an inch and a fourth. A single hole noticed 

 in the end of a log was straight. The eggs, which are about 



