LACE- WING FLIES— GRASSHOPPERS — SPRING-TAILS 



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of jumping. It feeds partly on plants, but also to a large extent on flies, and above 

 all on larvae, and is particularly skilful in catching flying insects with its fore- 

 legs. The females of these grasshoppers have the ovipositor curved. The common 

 green grasshopper (Locusta viridisslmu) is the largest and best known repre- 

 sentative of its genus, and is found all over Europe and northern Africa. In this 

 species the auditory organs are placed in the tibice of the fore-legs, and the male is 

 distinguished by its power of producing the well-known chirping sound by rubbing 

 the wing-covers over one another. These wing-covers are green in colour and 

 double the length of the abdomen, the right one having a mirror at its base, while 

 in the left one the veins are so modified in the corresponding part as to scrape the 

 margin of the mirror and set it vibrating. The females have the ovipositor straight. 



THE GREEN GRASSHOPPER. 



In the locusts and short-horned grasshoppers (Acridiiclce) the auditory organs 

 are situated in the first ring of the abdomen ; the females have no prominent 

 ovipositor, and both males and females chirp by rubbing their hind-legs against 

 their elytra, the sound being rather feeble in the female. One of these, Psophus 

 stridulus, mostly resorts to pine-forests, but also frequents mountain-meadows and 

 treeless heaths. It is about an inch in length, with two depressions and a keel on 

 the chest. The hind-legs are red, with broad black edges at the ends. 



Spring-Tails. 



The minute insects grouped as Thysanura are wingless and 

 covered with beautifully coloured scales or hairs, but are not subject 

 to a metamorphosis. Their scientific name is derived from certain bristle-like appen- 



