DIVISIONS. 143 



wing-covers projecting, like little scales, from the back near 

 the thorax. These pupae are active and voracious, and in- 

 crease greatly in size, which is not the case with the insects 

 that are subject to a complete transformation, for such never 

 eat or grow in the pupa state. When fully grown, they cast 

 off their skins for the sixth or last time, and then appear in 

 the adult or perfect state, fully provided with all their mem- 

 bers, with the exception of a few kinds which remain wingless 

 throughout their whole lives. The slight changes to which 

 the Orthoptera are subject consist of nothing more than a 

 successive series of moultings, during which their wings are 

 gradually developed. These changes may receive the name 

 of imperfect or incomplete transformation, in contradistinc- 

 tion to the far greater changes exhibited by those insects 

 which pass through a complete transformation in their pro- 

 gress to maturity. 



Cockroaches are general feeders, and nothing comes amiss 

 to them, whether of vegetable or animal nature ; the Mantes 

 or soothsayers are predaceous and carnivorous, devouring 

 weaker insects, and even those of their own kind occasion- 

 ally ; but by far the greater part of the Orthopterous insects 

 subsist on vegetable food, grass, flowers, fruits, the leaA^es, 

 and even the bark of trees ; whence it follows, in connection 

 with their considerable size, their great voracity, and the 

 immense troops or swarms in which they too often appear, 

 that they are capable of doing great injury to vegetation. 



The Orthoptera may be divided into four large groups : — 



1. Runners (Orthoptera cursoria*^), including earwigs and 

 cockroaches, with all the legs fitted for rapid motion ; 



2. Graspers ( Ortlioptera raptoria), such as the Mantes, or 

 soothsayers, with the shanks of the fore legs capable of being 

 doubled upon the under side of the thigh, which, moreover, 

 is armed with teeth, and thus forms an instrument for seizing 

 and holding their prey ; 



* These are the four divisions proposed by Mr. "Wcstwood in his - Introduc- 

 tion," who, however, applies to them their Latin names only. 



