348 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



largest wings^andalsothe longest insects; and their wings 

 are usually of a delicate rosy tint : but we must hasten 

 on to the Gryllinm, which, although forming a small 

 group, are of a very marked character. They are usually 

 robust. In Schizodactylus, a native of China, the tarsi 

 are elegantly lamellated laterally; the tibite are very 

 spinose ; and the extremity of their hemelytra are beau- 

 tifully convoluted. The domestic cricket belongs to this 

 group, whose cheerful chirp enlivens the farmhouse 

 hearth. Here we have also the remarkable Xya, which, 

 like Gryllotalpa, is a burrowing insect : but in the latter, 

 the extraordinary palmated anterior tibiae, very like a 

 dilated hand and fingers, — the structure requisite, as in 

 that of the mole, for its burrowing habits, — reaches its 

 highest perfection, and to which we find a sort of ana- 

 logical resemblance in the anterior tibiae of the burrow- 

 ing CarnbidcB, and in the structure of the prothorax in 

 the genus Chiron. The little Sphcej-ium acervorum is 

 an inhabitant of ants' nests : its four anterior legs are 

 slender: it is quite apterous; and has, perhaps, the most 

 largely developed posterior femora throughout the circle. 

 It is supposed that it feeds exclusively upon the roots 

 of plants. Equally apterous is the genus Cylindrodcs, 

 an elongate cylindrical insect, and one of the most ex- 

 traordinary forms throughout the group. 



(307.) In the LocustincB, we find in the genus P^cro- 

 chrosa, a remarkable similitude to many of the Phas- 

 mincB, in the resemblance of its elytra and wings to 

 leaves, but from which group its saltatorial legs remove 

 it. It is difficult to draw the strict line of separation be- 

 tween these and the preceding group, excepting, perhaps, 

 in the number of the joints of the tarsi, which are here 

 four; their antenna are equally setaceous, which separates 

 them from the AcridincB : tliey are usually more com- 

 pressed in form, and less robust; their tarsi, besides, have 

 a vesicular sole. In some, as Brudyporus and its allies, 

 the head is exceedingly large, and in Anostostoma, in- 

 sects from New Holland, there is a remarkable develop- 

 ment of the mandibles. In the division with smaller 



