244 



Pterophtllji.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-L0CUSTID.B. 



Tyiiipinu, li" 11 iiL'lUicida. 



liideous n)outh must be capacious enoiigli to lioIJ, and 

 Ktroiig enough to destroy, an insect of considerable size. 

 Some, lil^e the Pterochroza, 

 where the first pair of wings 

 are sometimes green, some- 

 times brown, and blotched 

 with red, likeleavesin spring, 

 in summer, and in autumn. 

 The delicate greens, purples, 

 violets, and reds of some of 

 them, are most fascinat- 

 ingly beautiful. The Acan- 

 thodis imperialis (Plate 5, 

 fig. 5), is also a most hand- 

 some creature, varied so 

 finely with black and green ; the streaks on its black 

 wings are very curious. It is a native of the mountains 

 of Silhet. 



Tympanophura pellucida (fig. 149) is a curious 

 green insect from King George's Sound, described by 

 tlie writer in Captain (now Governor Sir George) 

 Grey's " NaiTative," vol. ii., p. 4G8. 



Fig. 150 is that of the Marlcia hystrix, or Plta- 

 neroptera hyslrir, of Westwood— " Arcana Entomolo- 

 gica," vol. ii., pi. 70, fig 2. 



I have separated this from Phaneroptera, owing to 

 its general form difl'ering, especially in the erect spine on 

 the head, and the back of prothorax having two spines. 



Fig. 150. 



Mai'kia hystrix 



The posterior legs are armed within and without with 

 lung sliarp spines. The fore wings or tegmina are sharp 

 angled on the inner tip. It is a very pretty insect, and 

 says plainly, " Dinna meddle wi' me." I have named it 

 ill compliment to Edward W. Mark, Esq. 



On the same plate of the " Arcana " Mr. AVestwood 

 figures another orthopterous insect with the back of the 

 prothorax saddle-shaped, and with wing-like append- 

 ages to the legs which are not spined. He places it in 

 the genus Plianeroptera. The ovipositor is short and 

 bent. I propose for this insect and a second species, 

 the generic name of Dysonia, the type being Dysonia 

 albipes (Westw. spec). The name is out of respect 

 to the memory of my friend, the late Mr. David Dyson, 

 who collected in Venezuela and Honduras, whence he 

 sent and brought back with Lira magnificent zoological 

 collections. He was attached at the time of his death to 

 the Salford Museum. I hope elsewhere to give detailed 

 descriptions of these and other genera of Orthoptera. 



Mr. Gosse in Alabama found the Katydid (Pliro- 



phylla concava) abundant. They lodge in the trees, 

 and no sooner has the night come than they commence 

 their incessant ringing note, which they do not leave 

 ofl" till the morning light comes in. In the " Letters 

 from Alabama," Mr. Gosse says, "This sound has been 

 heard but a few weeks, beginning, not gradually, but 

 as it were in all places at once, or nearly so, and 

 bursting forth into full and vigorous chorus." He 

 shows that this is caused by these insects attaining 

 their perfect state almost simultaneously. He pro- 

 ceeds — " I think it will give you a pretty correct notion 

 of the tone and character of the particular concert in 

 question, to fancy a score or two of people with shrill 

 voices divided into pairs, each pair squabbling witli each 

 other. The organ producing this sound consists of a 

 hard, glassy ridge in front, which, on being crossed by its 

 fellow, creaks sharply, making the crink that is heard in 

 the trees. There must, however, be three distinct but 

 rapid crossings to make the whole sound represented 

 by the word ' Katedid,' which it can produce as quickly 

 as one can pronounce the word. Occasionally it gives 

 but a single impulse, which we may call uttering only 

 one syllable of the word, but usually the three are 

 heard, then an interval of a second, and again the 

 word, and so on. Behind this ridge there is a trans- 

 parent membrane, which appears tightly stretched over 

 a semicircular rim, like the parchment of a drum, and 

 which no doubt increases the sound by its vibrations."* 

 To tliis group of insects belongs the Katydid 

 {Tldiboscelis camelifolia) of North Ameiica, 

 so often mentioned in the poetry of the AVest. 

 ^ The gregarious Orthoptera are everywhere 



dreaded. I have seen a note from Gueinzius, 

 a German naturalist, who collected insects 

 largely in South Africa, complaining sadly of 

 the ravages of a wingless cricket allied to 

 Bradyporus, and which gnawed the insects off 

 his setting-boards — a habit not natural to them 

 surely, and not likely to be acquired frtmi either 

 Bushmen or Hottentots having been in the habit 

 of making insect collections. It indicates that 

 they can eat, like cockroaches, animal as 

 well as vegetable substances. 



Family — LOCUSTID^E {Grasshoppers and Locusts). 



These insects have not an exserted ovipositor; the 

 first pair of wings or tegmina, and the second, are 

 deflexed, and the antennas are generally short. Here 

 come our common Grasshoppers. 



The Rev. Mr. Methuen during his travels in South 

 Africa,f thus alludes to a sw^rm of locusts which passed 

 overhead ; he describes them as being " thick as the 

 flakes in a snow-storm. Of the myriads contained 

 in the fliglit, it would be impossible to form any cor- 

 rect estimate ; its breadth exceeded my scope of vision, 

 and its passage through the air occupied nearly half an 

 hour, though the insect is a smart-flying one. Strag- 

 glers, or deserters from the main army, which with a 

 rushing noise passed swiftly above us, alighted in such 

 abundance as to cover the ground ; yet the vast host 



• Letters from Alaliama, pp. 182-185. 

 f Life in the WilJerness by Rev. H. H. Melhuen, p. 2G3. 



