Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 125 



All the Orthoptera have biting mouth-parts, and bite off and chew their 

 food, which is usually live vegetable matter, especially green leaves, 

 although the members of one family are predaceous, preying on other insects, 

 and those of another family prefer dried vegetable or animal matter. The 

 metamorphosis is incomplete, the young, when hatched, resembling the parents 

 except for small size and lack of wings. The young have the same feeding 

 habits and same haunts as the adults, and by development and growth the 



FIG. 156. The immature stages of a locust, Melanoplus femur-rubrum. a, just hatched, 

 without wing-pads; b, c, d, and e after first, second, third, and fourth moultings 

 respectively, showing appearance and development of wings; /, adult, with fully 

 developed wings. (After Emerton.) 



wings and parental stature are soon acquired. The name of the order is 

 derived from the straight-margined leathery fore wings, or elytra, whose 

 chief function is to cover and protect the larger membranous hind wings 

 on which the flight function depends. Among the leaping Orthoptera the 

 hindmost legs are very large and long, and when at rest or in walking the 

 "knee-joints" of these legs are much higher than the back of the insect. 



The three singing and leaping families are the Acridiidae, locusts and 

 grasshoppers with short antennae; Locustidae, meadow green grasshoppers 



