330 ARTICULATA. TNSECTA. 



ORDER VI. ORTHOPTERA.* 



THESE Insects have much resemblance to the 

 Beetles, but differ from them in having the body 

 covered with a softer skin, the elytra membranous, 

 and more evidently wing-like, not meeting in a 

 straight line, but generally overlapping. The hind 

 wings are folded like a fan. The larva and pupa 

 resemble the perfect insect in form and every other 

 respect, except in being destitute of wings, which 

 however begin to appear in the pupa; this state 

 is not motionless and inert, as in the Beetles, but 

 active, feeding like the larva. They have been 

 separated into two families, the Runners and the 

 Leapers ; to the former of which belong the Ear- 

 wig, the Cockroach, and the Mantis ; to the latter, 

 the Cricket, the Grasshopper, and the Locust. 



The Earwig (Forficula~\) seems to be a connect- 

 ing link between this Order and the Beetles, among 

 which it was placed by Linnaeus. The two curved 

 pieces, forming a forceps, with which its body ter- 

 minates, is a very strongly marked character. Our 

 common species, named, by a foolish concession to 

 vulgar prejudice, F. Auricularia, is too abundant 

 to need much detail of its habits, these being but 

 too well known to every lover of flowers, who has 



* 'O^os, orthos, straight, and vrtgov, pteron, a wing, 

 j* Forfex, a pair of shears. 



