Order 6. 



ORTHOPTERA. 



561 



Mi/rmecophila (Sp/t<eriu7/i, Charpent.), is destitute of wings, and has the body oval. J/, acervorum is of vert 

 small size, and lives in Ants' nests [on the Continent]. 



Others [having, hke the last, a talc-like spot at the base of the wing-covers in the male], have these 



organs disposed like a roof, and the tarsi have four 

 joints ; the antennae are very long and filiform. The 

 females have the ovipositor always exserted, com- 

 pressed, and sabre or cutlass- shaped. These insects 

 are herbivorous, and form the genus 



Fig. 92. — L. viridissima. 



LocusTA, Geofl'r. {Gryllus, or GnjlUdie, of English 



• authors]. 

 [The Great Green Grasshopper, with long antennae], 

 L. viridissima, is two inches long:, green, without spots ; 

 the ovipositor of the female is straight. 



Many species of this genus are destitute of wings, or 

 have wing-covers only, but of very small size. 

 [The species of this genus, or rather, family, have been distributed into a considerable number of generic groups 

 by Thunberg, Serville, Latreille, Burmeister, and others, founded upon external variations of form.] 



The others have the antennae filiform and cylindric, sword-shaped, or thickened at the tips, and as 

 long as the head and thorax; the wings and wing-covers are roof-shaped when inactive, and the tarsi 

 are 3-jointed. The tonguelet, in the majority, has only two divisions ; the ocelli are three in number, 

 and constantly distinct ; the mandibles much toothed ; the abdomen conical, and compressed at the 

 sides. They leap with much more energy than the preceding, and have a much longer sustained 

 flight. They feed upon vegetables with great voracity. They may be united into a single genus, that of 



AcRVDiUM, GeofTr., — 

 Which [has been greatly divided into genera and subgenera by Serville, Burmeister, and Thunberg, but which] 

 Latreille divides as follows. 



Some have the mouth exposed, the tonguelet bifid, and a membranous pulvillus between the tarsal ungues. 



Pneumora, Thunb., has the hind-legs shorter than the body, and scarcely fitted for leaping ; the abdomen is 

 bladder-shaped in one of the sexes. These species are only found in the southern parts of Africa. 



Proscopia, Klug, is wingless ; the body is long and cylindrical ; the head, without ocelli, is prolonged in front 

 into a point or cone, bearing two very short 7-jointed antennae, pointed at the tip ; and the hind-legs are large and 

 long. These insects are peculiar to South America, and have been well monographed by Klug. 



Truxalis, Fab., has the antennae compressed, and of a prismatic form; the head elevated into a pyramid. 

 Gryllus nasutus. Lam., and many other exotic species. 



Xyphicera, Latr. (Pamphagus, Thunb.), is composed of species which, in respect to their antennae, are interme- 

 diate between Truxalis and the following genus. 



Acrydium proper, Gryllus, Fab. (Gryllus locusfa, Linn.), [Locuslida of British authors], differs from Pneumora 

 in having the hind feet longer than the body ; the abdomen solid, and not bladder-like: and from Truxalis, in 

 having the head ovoid, and the antennae filiform, or terminated by a knot. Many species have on each side of the 

 body, near the base of the abdomen, a large cavity, closed on the inside by a very thin pellicle. I have described 

 this organ in the eighth volume of the Memoires dit Museum, which has some influence either in the production of 

 the chirping, or in flight. From analogy with the Cicada, I have compared it to a kind of tambour. The species 

 fly high in the air, and often in troops. Their hind wings are often agreeably coloured, especially with red and 

 blue. Amongst the exotic species the thorax is often crested, warty, or otherwise singularly formed. Certain 

 species have been termed Migratory, from their uniting themselves in troops of incalculable numbers, and mi- 

 grating through the air in thick clouds, and in an astoni.shingly short time transform the places where they alight 

 into an arid waste. Their death even becomes a scourge, the air being infected by the immense masses of their 

 dead bodies. M. Miot, in his excellent translation of Herodotus, conjectures that the mass of dead bodies of 

 winged serpents which the historian relates to have seen in Egypt, was a mass of the bodies of these migratory 

 locusts. This opinion perfectly accords with my own. These insects are consumed in different countries of 

 Africa, the inhabitants using them for their own food, and as an article of commerce. They tear ofl' the wings and 

 wing covers, and then bake them. A great portion of Europe is often overrun by 



Gryllus migratorius, which is two inches and a half long, with bronn wing-covers spotted with black, and a 

 slightly elevated crest on the thorax. The eggs are enveloped in a glutinous secretion, forming a cocoon, which 

 the insect is said to fasten to plants. [This is, however, refuted by the observations of Mr. Smirnove upon the 

 locusts of Russia, published in the Transactions of the Linntean Society of London.} It is common in Poland. 



The south of Europe, Barbary, Egypt, &c., suffer similar devastations from some other species, of which some 

 are of larger size, as G. eegyptius, tatoricus. Lam., &c., and which scarcely differ fjom G. liiieola. Fab., which is 

 found in the south of France ; a species peculiar to the same countries, and which is that which is eaten and pra- 

 pared in Barbary, m the manner above detailed. The natives of Senegal dry another species, of which the body is 



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