30 CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



when the wingpads appear, and they are now known as nymphs. At 

 the last molt the wings are fully developed, and the insect is perfect. 



They are voracious in all their stages, and while we find a beneficial 

 member of the order in the mantis, we also find in it many of our most 

 destructive insects, the grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, cockroaches, etc. 

 Our readers are fully alive to the devastation wrought by one of the 

 families of this order the locusts as California, and the whole Pacific 

 Coast, frequently suffer severely from their depredations. With, per- 

 haps, the exception of the Cicada, or seventeen-year locust, which, by 

 the way, is not a locust, but a "bug," as explained elsewhere, we find in 

 this order the only " singing" insects, and the song of the cricket on 

 the hearth and the katydid in the trees has given most people a kindly 

 feeling for these destructive insects, not felt toward others. 



The Orthoptera are classed in six families, which Comstock describes 

 as follows: 



The Running Orthoptera. The body is oval when seen from above and is very flat; 



the three pairs of legs are similar in form ; the insects run rapidly Blattidx 



The Grasping Orthoptera. The prothorax is very long and slender ; the first pair 



of legs are very different from the others, and are fitted for grasping Mantidx 



The Walking Orthoptera. The body is very long and slender; the three pairs of legs 

 are similar in form, and are also very long and slender; the insects walk 



slowly -. Phasmidx 



The Jumping Orthoptera. The hind legs are very much stouter or very much 

 longer., or both stouter and longer, than the middle pair, being fitted for 

 jumping. This group includes three families: 



The Short-Horned Grasshoppers, or Locusts. The antennae are shorter than 

 the body. The ovipositor of the female is short and composed of four 



separate plates. The tarsi are three-jointed.. Acrididx 



The Long-Horned Grasshoppers. The antennae are very slender and longer 

 than the body. (This is also true of the crickets.) The ovipositor is 



sword-shaped. The tarsi are four-jointed Locustidx 



The Crickets. The antennae, like those of the long-horned grasshoppers, 

 are very slender and longer than the body, except in the mole-crickets. 

 The ovipositor is spear-shaped when exerted. The tarsi are three- 

 jointed. Gryllidx 



These families are sometimes grouped in two large sections: the Salta- 

 toria, or the leapers, in which the hind legs are much lengthened and 

 formed for jumping, as the crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts, and the 

 Cursoria, in which the legs are formed for running, as the cockroaches, 

 etc. The latter group includes the first mentioned three families, and 

 the first group the others. 



Section CURSORIA. 



Family Blattidse. At the head of the section Cursoria is placed the 

 Blattidae, or roaches. While few of them are known to California, 

 there are a thousand or more species in the world. Many of these live 

 in the fields and find shelter under sticks and stones. Some are wing- 

 less, and all are nocturnal and very fond of heat and moisture. It is on 



