90 FIELD ZOOLOGY. 



According to Comstock, the three singing and leap- 

 ing orthopterous families are the Acrididae, short-homed 

 grasshoppers; the Locustidae, long-homed grasshoppers, 

 generally green ; and the Gryllidae, or crickets. 



The short-homed grasshoppers are the grasshoppers 

 commonly called locusts. The Lubber grasshopper of the 

 South and the West belongs here. Its body is large and 

 clumsy, and its wings are reduced to mere pads. 



Fig. 37. — A long-horned grasshopper. {Kellogg.) 



The second class, really the locusts or long-homed 

 hoppers, includes the meadow-green hoppers, (Fig. 37), 

 the katydids, with long thread-like antennse often longer 

 than the body, the shield-backed grasshoppers, and the 

 cricket-like hoppers. 



In practically all of these, the hind legs are longer than 

 the front legs or the middle pair. The shield-backed 

 grasshoppers are wingless and are known by the fact that 

 the pronotum, or shield on the upper part of the body just 

 back of the head, extends well back over the thorax and 

 the base of the abdomen, like a cloak thrown over the 

 shoulders. The cricket-like grasshoppers are to be looked 

 for around old well curbs or stone piles, in damp, dark 



