146 ORTHOPTERA. 



II. GRASPERS. ( Orthoptera raptoria.) 



These, which consist of the Mantes, called praying mantes 

 and soothsayers, from their singular attitudes and motions, 

 and camel-crickets, from the great length of the neck, are 

 chiefly tropical insects, though some of them are occasionally 

 found in this country. Moreover, they are exclusively pre- 

 daceous insects, seizing, with their singular fore legs, cater- 

 pillars, and other weaker insects, which they devour. They 

 are, therefore, to be enumerated among the insects that are 

 beneficial to mankind, by keeping in check those that subsist 

 on vegetable food. 



III. WALKERS. ( Orthoptera ambulatoria. ) 



To this division belong various insects, mostly found in 

 warm climates, and displaying the most extraordinary forms. 

 Some of them are furnished with wings, which, by their 

 shape, and the branching veins with which they are covered, 

 exactly represent leaves, either green, or dry and withered ; 

 such are the walking-leaves, as they are called (Pliyllium 

 jmlchrifolium, siccifolium, &c). Others are wingless, of a 

 long and cylindrical shape, resembling a stick with the bark 

 on it, while the slender legs, standing out on each side, give 

 to these insects almost precisely the appearance of a little 

 branching twig, whence is derived the name of walking-sticks, 

 generally applied to them. The South American Bacteria 

 arumatia, rubispinosa, and pliyllma, and two species of Dia- 

 plieromera ? 1 described and figured in Say's " American 

 Entomology," under the names of Spectrum femoratum (Fig. 

 67, male) and bivittatum, are of the latter description. These 

 insects are very sluggish and inactive, are found among trees 



[ 1 Two species of Phasma are noticed. The first is Bacunculus femoratus, Say, 

 which has also received the name of Bacunculus Sayi, Burra., and under which 

 name it is best known to European authors. The latter was long ago figured by 

 Stoll, in his great work upon the Orthoptera, and his name preoccupied that of 

 Say and should be retained for it; it is Amisomorpha Buprestoides. The former 

 has been found in most of the States east of the Mississippi, while the latter is 

 peculiar to Florida and some of the Southern States. — Uhlek ] 



