CHAPTER XII. 

 Order ORTHOPTERA (Or-thop'te-rd). 



Cockroaches, Crickets, Grasshoppers, and others. 



The members of this order have four wings : the first pair 

 are thickened, and overlap when at rest ; the second pair are 

 thinner, and are folded in plaits like a fan. The mouth-parts 

 are formed for biting. The metamorphosis is incomplete. 



The order Orthoptera includes some of the very common 

 and best-known insects. The most familiar representatives 

 are those named above. 



Although the song of the Katydid and the chirp of 

 crickets are most often associated with recollections of pleas- 

 ant evenings spent in the country, we cannot forget that to 

 members of this order are due some of the most terrible 

 insect scourges man has known. The devastations caused 

 by great swarms of migratory locusts are not only matters of 

 historical record, but are too painfully known to many of our 

 own generation in the Western States. 



With the exception of a single family {Mantidce), the 

 members of this order are, as a rule, injurious to vegetation ; 

 and many species are quite apt to multiply to such an extent 

 that their destruction of vegetation becomes serious. 



The name of the order is from two Greek words: orthos, 

 straight; andpteron, a wing. It refers to the longitudinal 

 folding of the hind wings. 



In the Orthoptera the two pairs of wings differ in struc- 

 ture. The fore wings are parchment-like, forming covers for 

 the more delicate hind wings. These wing-covers have re- 



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