118 CRABS AND INSECTS. 
and mold-spots of various colors are also mimicked in 
some, so that the insect resembles a dried leaf well de- 
cayed. The eggs might even be taken for deeply-ribbed 
_seeds. 
Grasshoppers (Acrydii).—The grasshoppers (Fig. 
142) have a compressed body, short antenne, and hind- 
legs adapted for leaping. Their noise, 
which is often deafening, is made by rub- 
bing the thighs (Fig. 143) against the fore- 
Fic. 141.—Phyl- 
lium siccifolt- 
um, feeds on Fic. 143.—Leg of a grasshopper, magnified, showing 
c 
andbie obococeeen o 
leaves, and ridge of fine teeth on the inside of the leg, marked a, 
mimics fresh by which the insect rasps the wing; 4, c, different 
leaves, views of ridge of fine teeth, highly magnified. 
wings. Their eggs are deposited, 50 to 100 at a time, in 
a cocoon-shaped mass, in the ground, though the female 
has no produced ovipositor. The organs of hearing are 
at the base of the abdomen. 
NoTE.—Some species migrate in such vast numbers that they 
have been known to darken the sun. Their bodies, once washed 
ashore on the African coast, formed a wall fifty miles long and three 
or four feet in height. Jaegar passed through a swarm in Russia 
400 miles long and two feet deep. They threatened a famine, and 
30,000 soldiers, armed with shovels, were sent out to reduce their 
numbers. In 1478 30,000 persons starved to death in Russia, the 
result of their raids. 
