358 ORDERS OF PTILOTA. 



teiinse are short and slender, and the fore legs very broad and 

 notched, being very powerful and well adapted for burrowmg 

 under ground ^ the abdomen is terminated by two long slender 

 and hairy bristles. This insect, which, with some trifling varia- 

 tions in structure, is found all over the globe, is an inch and a half 

 or two inches long, nearly cylindric, and of a brown colour. 



It is a noxious animal, committing much injury in gardens and 

 cultivated ground, burrowing a short distance beneath the sm-face, 

 with the assistance of its large palmated fore-legs. In this manner 

 it loosens the roots of vegetables, upon which, indeed, it is said to 

 subsist. 



The family Gryllidce comprises the grasshoppers with long 

 and slender antennae, of which the great green grasshopper 

 {Gryllus viridissimus, Linn.) is the most conspicuous ex- 

 ample. In insects of this, and the preceding and following 

 family, the powers of leaping are prodigious, being performed 

 by means of the peculiar structure of the hind legs. 



Great green Grasshopper. 



The noise which these insects produce is made by means 

 of a round plate, made of very fine transparent membrane, 

 resembling a little mirror or piece of talc, of the tension of 

 a tbum. This membrane is surrounded by a strong and 

 prominent nervure, and is concealed under the fold of the 

 left wdng-cover, w^hich has also several prominent ner^ou-es 

 answering to the margin of the membrane or ocellus. There 

 is every reason to believe that the brisk movement with 



