560 



INSECTA 



Mantis siccifolia [or the Walking Leaf], a species peculiar to the Sechelles Islands, Mauritius, &c., of which the 

 female has very short a:itenna', with the wing-covers as long as the abdomen, but destitute of wings ; the male 

 is much narrower, with long filiform antenna; ; short wing-covers, and wings as long as the abdomen. 



[Latreille, in the Families Naturclles, Saint Fargeau and Serville, in the Enciidopedie mcthodiquc, the latter in 

 his Histoire naturclle des Insectes Orthoptcres, and Gray in his Synopsis of Phasmidic, have constituted a great 

 number of generic groups detached from those given above, and which are founded upon the variations 

 in the developement of the wings in the different sexes ; the proportions of the thoracic segments, antennae, &c. 

 Messrs. Burmeister and BruUe have considerably reduced the number of these groups in their works upon this 

 order.] 



THE SECOND FAMILY OF THE ORTHOPTERA,— 

 The Saltatoria, — 



Has the two hind feet remarkable for the size of their thighs, and for the very spined tibire thus formed 

 for leaping. The males call their females by making a chirping noise, which is sometimes produced 

 by rubbing an inner part of the wing-covers like a talc-like mirror, against each other with rapidity, 

 and sometimes by a similar alternate motion of the hind thighs against the wings and wing-covers, 

 the thighs acting the part of the bow of a violin. The majority of the females lay their eggs in the 

 ground. 



This family is composed of the genus 



Gryllus, Linn., — 

 Which we divide as follows : — 



Some have the organ of sound in the males consisting of an inner part of the wing-covers in the 

 sliape of a mirror ; the ovipositor of the females is very long, exserted, and often sabre-shaped, and the 

 antenna; are either very long and slender at the tips, or of equal thickness throughout, but very short. 



In some of these, the wings and wing-covers are horizontal, the wings when folded up in repose 

 forming long filaments, extending beyond the wing-covers, and the tarsi have only three joints, as in 

 the genus 



Gryllus, GeofFroy & Oliv. (Achcta, Fabr.), [and Achetid<e of English authors]. 



They live in burrows, and ordinarily feed upon insects ; many are nocturnal. They form four subgenera. 



Gryllotalpa, Latr., having the tibia; and tarsi of the two fore-legs very broad, flat, and toothed, like bands 

 proper for burrowing ; the other tarsi of the ordinary form. 



Gryllotalpa vulgaris [the Mole-cricket], is an inch and a half long, and of a brown colour, 

 from the injuries it commits in gardens and cul- 

 tivated fields, living in the earth, where its fos- 

 sorial fore-legs, like those of a Mole, enable it to 

 form a burrow. It cuts or detaches the roots of 

 plants, but less with the intention of feeding upon 

 them as to form a passage, for it feeds, as it would 

 seem, upon other insects or worms. The song 

 of the male, heard only in the evening or night, 

 is soft, and not disagreeable. [It is thence, in 

 some parts of England, called Chur-worm.] The 

 female forms, in June and July, at the depth of 

 about six inches, a subterranean rounded cell. 



It is too well known 



Fig. 91.— Gryllotalpa vulirari 



smooth in the interior, in which she deposits from 200 to 400 eggs ; the cell with its gallery resembles a bottle 

 with a long bent neck. The young live for some time in society. See for further details the observations of 

 M. le Feburier in the Nouv. Cours d^ Agriculture. [From more recent observations, it appears certain that the 

 Mole-cricket is obnoxious in gardens, &c., from its herbivorous habits. One species, G. didactyla, in the West 

 Indies, does great injury to the plantations of young sugar canes. See, also, the work of KoUar on injurious 

 insects, translated by Miss Loudon.] 



Tridactylus, Oliv. (Xya, lUig.), are also fossorial in their habits, but only with the anterior tibiae ; the posterior 

 tarsi are replaced by narrow, bent, moveable appendages ; the antennae are very short, and 10-jointed. Minute 

 exotic insects. [The genus Ripiptery.v, Newman, is closely allied to this genus.] 



Gryllus proper [G7-yllus acheta of Linnaeus, Acheta of English authors], have not the feet fitted for buri'owing, 

 and the females have the ovipositor long and exserted ; the antenna; are greatly elongated, pointed at the tip ; the 

 ocelli are indistinct. The Field-cricket, Gryllus campestris, Linn., and the common House-cricket, G. domesficus, 

 belong to this genus. The first forms deep retreats in dry and hot situations, in which it stations itself to surprise 

 other insects upon which it preys. The female deposits about 300 eggs; the House-cricket inhabits the interior 

 parts of houses, especially in the neighbourhood of fire-places, in which it makes its burrows, and breeds. The 

 male produces a harsh noise ; that made by G. megaccphalus can be heard at the distance of a mile. 



