128 NATURAL HISTORY. 



such very large size, the females of the best-known Locusts of the Old World being only about two 

 inches long, while the Rocky Mountain Locust (Caloptenus spretus) of North America is only about the 

 size of the largest English Grasshoppers. In European countries the Migratory Locust (CEdipoda 

 migratoria) is the best known, and this sometimes strays as far as Britain. In the south-east of Europe a 

 nearly allied species (CEdipoda cinerascens) occurs. These insects are excessively destructive to vegeta- 

 tion when they make their appearance in unusual abundance. They travel more or less in search of 

 nourishment while still in the larval condition, but their great wanderings are performed through the 

 air after they have attained the perfect state. The most extraordinaiy accounts are on record of the 

 vastness of the swarms of Locusts which every now and then invade particular districts ; they are said 

 sometimes absolutely to darken the sun at noon. They clear everything off the surface of the ground 

 as completely as if the place had been visited by fire (whence the name of " Locust " applied to them). 

 They have on several occasions caused disastrous famines in certain countries, and the putrefaction of 

 their bodies en masse, especially on the sea-shore, is described as giving origin to most offensive and 

 pestilential effluvia. The range of these destroyers in the Old World stretches from Spain and the south 

 of France in the west, through southern and central Eussia to China ; south of this boundary the Locusts 

 have repeatedly done much injury to the crops. In America more or less migratory Locusts are described 

 as committing devastations quite up into Canada. In Eastern countries Locusts are commonly eaten. 



TRIBE CURSORIA 



The insects forming this tribe are at once distinguished from those of the preceding families by 

 having the hind legs adapted for walking or running and not for leaping ; and from those of the 

 next tribe by the veining of the wings, the central point of radiation of the veins being here placed 

 at the root of the wing. By some entomologists they are treated as constituting two or even three 

 separate tribes, each including only a single family, but this course seems to be quite unnecessary. 



FAMILY IV. MANTID^E. 



The Mantidse are at once distinguishable from the insects of the two following families by the 

 structure of their fore legs, which are converted into powerful raptorial organs, in correlation with 

 which the prothorax is also generally much elongated. The coxae of these limbs are inserted far 

 forward on the under surface of the prothorax, and are very long, reaching, in fact, as far as the 

 base of that segment. Attached to them, with the assistance of a well-developed trochanter, are the 

 femora, which are long, generally stout, and deeply furrowed along the under side, the edges of the 

 furrow being garnished with rows of strong spines ; the tibiae which follow are more slender, but are 

 also strongly armed with spines on the under side, and they are hinged on to the end of the femora 

 in such a way that they can shut into the groove which, as already stated, runs along the lower 

 surface of the latter. As the elongated prothorax can be raised into a nearly vertical position, and 

 the coxae are very freely articulated, it will be seen that these fore limbs constitute most formidable 

 prehensile organs, from which any small animal seized by them would not have the least chance of 

 escaping. The other four legs are much more slender and organised for walking; the tarsi are all five- 

 jointed. 



The body in these insects is more or less elongated ; the head, which is triangular or heart- 

 shaped, is attached to the thorax by a distinct neck, and set on vertically ; the eyes are oval, 

 usually of considerable size, and inflated, and between them on the forehead, behind the insertion of 

 the antennae, are three ocelli, which are more distinct in the males than in the females. The parts of 

 the mouth are well developed, and the four lobes of the labium are almost equal in size. The 

 antennae are generally slender and thread-like, and composed of numerous joints, but variable in 

 length. 



The tegmina and wings are generally well developed, reaching or passing the extremity of the 

 abdomen, upon which they are placed horizontally, the tegmina lying one over the other. The latter 

 organs have a very distinct marginal area cut off by a strong vein, and from this veins run to the 

 inner margin, and usually give off numerous fine veinlets which traverse the membrane. The wings 

 show the usual fan-like arrangement of veins characteristic of the ti'ibe. The abdomen is 

 usually elongated, wider towards the extremity, and broader in the females than in the males; 



