GREEN GRASSHOPPERS (LOCUSTID^}. 153 



as much care on its long, graceful antennae as many a 

 maiden does upon her abundant tresses, the antennae 

 being drawn between the jaws and smoothed by the 

 palpi, with evident satisfaction. But, in time, in his ex- 

 perience, confinement produces disastrous effects. He 

 reared three successive broods in captivity, and, after the 

 first year, the insects gradually deteriorated, so that the 

 eggs of the third generation the fourth spring failed 

 to hatch. 



These katydids feed upon the foliage of the trees 

 which they inhabit, but are rarely injurious to plants : 

 Locustidae are less exclusively herbivorous than the 

 Acridiidae are ; many seem to partake of a mixed diet. 

 A large number are believed to be entirely carnivorous, 

 fewer to be solely phytophagous. It occasionally hap- 

 pens that they increase to large numbers in Europe, 

 and in America in the case of a member of the genus 

 Anabrus, which is sometimes destructive to crops. 



The Tegmina resemble Leaves. 



Many insects of this family are of a green colour, in 

 assimilation to that of their habitat ; the green of 

 Locusta viridissima is wonderfully similar to that of 

 the herbage amongst which it lives. The wing-covers 

 in many present a most singular resemblance to leaves, 



