252 ORTHOPTERA OF NOVA SCOTIA. — PIERS. 



aa. Antennae much longer than body; tarsi 3- or 4-jointed; calling organs, 

 when present, on dorsal area of wing-covers; ovipositor usually much 

 elongated. 

 b. Tarsi 4-jointed; wing-covers with sides sloping; ovipositor usually 



flattened, sword-shaped (Long-horned Locusts) Tettigoniidje. 



bb. Tarsi 3-jointed; wing-covers flat above, with sides bent abruptly 



down; ovipositor a nearly straight or upcurved needle 



(Crickets) GRYLLiDiE. 



Family Acridid^ (Short-horned Locusts). 

 This family is readily distinguished by the antennae, 

 which are much shorter than the body. The species are 

 usually simply called "grasshoppers", no attempt being 

 made by the ordinary individual to apply special names to 

 the many species. The males only, as in other Orthoptera, 

 have stridulating or sound-producing organs. In the sub- 

 families Locustince (Spined Locusts) and Acridinm (Oblique- 

 faced Spineless Locusts) this call-note is produced by rubbing 

 the inner surface of the minutely-toothed hind femora, over 

 veins of the wing-covers, this being done when the insect is 

 otherwise at rest. In the subfamily Q^dipodince sound is 

 usually produced while in flight, by rubbing together the 

 upper surface of the front edge of the wings and the under 

 surface of the wing-cover, thus producing a sharp, cracking 

 sound, which is very familiar in the case of C. verruculatus . 

 The AcrididoB, with the exception of the members of 

 the hibernating subfamily Acrydiince, pass the winter in 

 the egg stage; the eggs, 30 to 60 in number, being deposited 

 during the autumn, usually in a hole which the female forms 

 in the ground, the cavity being then covered with earth. 

 If the succeeding winter is an open one with many changes 

 of temperature, many eggs are destroyed. Next season the 

 young hatch and are at first wingless. Five times the nymph 

 moults its skin, the wings and body increasing in size each 

 time, and after the fifth moult it emerges a mature insect 



or imago. 



Key to Subfamiues of AcRioiDiE. 

 a. Size very small; 'pronotum extending backward, tapering, to or beyond 

 end of abdomen; wing-covers represented by small oval lobes on sides. 



(Grouse Locusts) AculrDiiNiB. p. 253. 



