LOCUSTS 27 



been captured on the hills near Netley, in Oxford- 

 shire. 



Owing to an unfortunate dissension among naturalists 

 as to the original application of the name Locustida, it 

 is used by many authors to designate the long-horned 

 or tree-grasshoppers, although the family includes 

 none of the locusts of common parlance. To escape 

 from this dilemma, we shall in these pages follow the 

 lead of those authorities who call locusts (including 

 their lesser relatives the short-horned grasshoppers) 

 Locustida, and the long-horned group Phasgonurida. 

 It may be noted that this course has been adopted by 

 those responsible for the arrangement of the Insect 

 Gallery at the British Museum (Natural History). 

 Members of the Phasgonurida may be easily recog- 

 nized by their long, thread-like antennae and four- 

 jointed tarsi. The females have conspicuous ovi- 

 positors. In both sexes the external openings of the 

 " ears " are at the bases of the front tibiae, just below 

 their articulation with the femora ; while the males 

 stridulate by rubbing a file-like vein, situated on the 

 underside of the fore- wing or tegmen, over a sharp 

 ridge on the upper surface of the tegmen lying beneath, 

 the left tegmen being the file-bearing uppermost one. 

 Furthermore, the right tegmen has at its base a drum- 

 like vibrating membrane, while there is a correspond- 

 ing cell or chamber on the underside of the left 

 tegmen, the whole forming a kind of resounding 

 apparatus. Long-horned grasshoppers frequent trees, 

 shrubs, and herbage, and appear rarely to sit actually 

 upon the ground. Their food consists of leaves to 

 some extent, but most, if not all, of the species are 

 largely carnivorous, eating caterpillars and other 

 insects, and in captivity devouring one another with 



