THE ORTHOPTERA 



81 



are wingless, or with only wing stubs, which adds to their stick-like 

 appearance. They are brown or green in color and thus much re- 

 semble the twigs on which they rest, or the larger leaf veins. Only 

 one species (Diapheromera femorata Say) is abundant except in the more 

 southern states, but this is quite generally present (Fig. 54). 



Walking-sticks feed on foliage and when abundant may entirely 

 strip many acres of forest trees of their leaves, though this does not 

 often happen. Their eggs are laid in the fall, being dropped singly, 

 wherever the insects happen to be, and falling to the ground remain 

 there until the following spring, or in some cases until the second spring, 

 before hatching. Though not laid a 

 number together in a case as in the last 

 two families, each egg has a case or 

 capsule of its own. 



Where forest areas are attacked, no 

 entirely satisfactory method of control 

 is known. In the case of a few trees or 

 plants easily accessible, spraying with a 

 stomach poison is sufficient to prevent 

 farther injury. 



This group is mainly a tropical one, 

 over 600 kinds being known, very variable 

 in size and appearance. One species has 

 a body nine inches or more in length, 

 and with its front legs extended forward 

 and its hinder ones backward a position 

 it often assumes may measure sixteen 

 inches or even more, while its body has 

 a diameter of less than one-quarter of 

 an inch. In the tropical forms wings are 

 often present, and in some cases colored and marked to resemble leaves. 

 This resemblance is increased in Pulchriphyllium scythe Gray (Fig. 55) , 

 found in the East Indies, by leaf -like expansions of the femora and tibiae 

 and of the body itself. 



The insects belonging to the three families of this order, treated thus 

 far, are all walkers or runners (Cursoria). Those now to be considered 

 are leaping forms (Saltatoria) , the hind legs being longer than the others 

 and provided with powerful muscles. Their heads are generally strongly 

 hypognathous, the mouth being directed downward and in some cases 

 even a little backward. Sounds sometimes called musical are produced 

 by most members of these families. 



Family Acrididse (The Grasshoppers) 



The insects belonging in this group are commonly called grasshoppers. 

 A few kinds when adult migrate, often in such enormous numbers as to 



FIG. 55. A Tropical Leaf-insect 

 (Pulchriphyllium scythe Gray) about 

 half natural size. (Original.) 



