88 



FIELD ZOOLOGY. 



Besides being singers, the Orthoptera are high 

 jumpers. Talk of "high jump" records! Any lusty 

 grasshopper goes a long way toward beating the world 

 record every time he jumps. If he sets his heart on a 

 juicy leaf six feet away, lo ! he is there. Or, if you pursue 

 him, he will do an eight- or a ten-foot stunt before he will 

 let you catch him. Think of an insect two inches long 

 jumping, say, eight feet, ninety-six inches! At this rate 



antennse 



—ovipositor 



femuf 

 tibia 



tarsal segments 



Fig. 35. — Locust (enlarged) with external parts named. 



a six-foot man would have to jump two hundred eighty- 

 eight feet to keep up with the humble grasshopper. 

 But, then, the record of the grasshopper, marvelous as it 

 is, is not to be compared with the capabilities in that 

 direction, of the fleas. An ordinary flea, under stress of 

 circumstances, will jump from four to five feet; that is, 

 an insect one-eighth of an inch long will jump forty- 

 eight or sixty inches — three hundred sixty-four or four 

 hundred eighty times its own length. This is a long 



