THE LOCUSTIDJB. 



125 



of the labium are very narrow, and usually displaced by the enlarged outer lobes ; the prothorax is 

 saddle-shaped ; the hind legs are usually much elongated ; and the tarsi are four-jointed. The two 

 pairs of wings are almost always developed, and they are placed in repose almost perpendicularly on 

 the sides of the body, which they generally exceed in length ; the tegmina overlie each other only by 

 a small portion of the inner margin towards the base, and here in the males are situated the stridu- 

 lating organs, consisting of a peculiar talc-like plate, surrounded by elevated chitinous ridges in the 

 right, and a corresponding space with strong veins on the under surface of the left, wing-cover, which 

 overlies the other, and by the friction of these parts a loud chirping is produced. The dorsal surface 

 of the abdomen usually shows the whole of the eleven segments composing that part of the body 

 at any rate, in the 

 females which are also 

 furnished with a long, 

 sabre-like ovipositor ; in 

 both sexes we find at the 

 end of the abdomen apair 

 of unjointed appendages. 

 (Fig. 2, p. 282, Vol. V.) 



The Locustidte not 

 only possess a very 

 considerable power of 

 making a noise in the 

 world, but they are also 

 amongthe comparatiA r ely 

 few insects in which a 

 special organ for the 

 perception of sounds ap- 

 pears to exist. The 

 supposed auditory organs 

 in these animals consist 

 of a pair of apertures 

 situated at the base of 

 each anterior tibia ; 

 these are closed by tense 

 membranes, between 

 which the main trachea 



of the limb is dilated into a vesicular form, whilst at the same point a nerve originating from the 

 first thoracic ganglion terminates in a swelling, which gives off a set of peculiar nerve elements, 

 enclosed in small transparent vesicles. 



In temperate climates, the adult Locustidse make their appearance late in the summer or in the 

 autumn ; some of them live among herbage on the ground, but the majority frequent trees and bushes. 

 They feed chiefly upon other insects and their larvae, although vegetable matters appear to form part 

 of their diet. The gizzard is ah, -ays present, although less highly developed than in the Crickets. 

 Although most of the species are abundantly provided with wings, they do not seem to fly readily, 

 but make use of their wings more after the fashion of a parachute, to support them in the air when 

 making what may be denominated long leaps. The females deposit their eggs in light soil by means 

 of the long ovipositor, which is pushed down into the ground, and then allows the eggs to pass out one 

 by one by the separation of its two valves. 



The Locustidse form a much more extensive family than the Gryllidse, and they are also very 

 widely distributed, although they are more especially inhabitants of the warmer regions of the 

 earth's surface. In hot countries, indeed, the species are not only much more numerous, but for 

 the most part larger and finer than in temperate climates, although some of the European species 

 are of considerable size. Thus the Great Green Grasshopper Locusta viridissima, as it is called 

 measures over an inch long in the body; and another European and British form, the Decticus 



LOCUSTA VIRIDISSIMA AND ITS METAMORPHOSES. 



