CATALOGUE OF ORTHOPTEROUS INSECTS. 



Mr. G. R. Gray, and subsequently by the excellent Synopsis 

 which he published of the entire group. 



The species are, however, far more numerous than has 

 hitherto been supposed, as may be easily conceived from 

 the fact, that notwithstanding the recent labours of G. R. 

 Gray, Burmeister, De Haan and Serville respectively in 

 England, Germany, Holland and France, I have been enabled 

 in the present work nearly to double the number of known 

 species. 



The chief specific characters exist in the relative pro- 

 portions of the different parts of the body, and the form 

 and position of the spines, lobes and tubercles with which 

 their bodies and limbs are armed. In these respects there 

 is a general amount of resemblance between the males 

 and females, which allows us in certain instances to assume 

 the specific identity between specimens of opposite sexes, 

 the males being smaller, more slender, and furnished with 

 longer legs and antennae ; whilst the females are larger, 

 more robust, and have shorter limbs. In many cases also 

 the females are entirely destitute of wings, or have them 

 only partially developed, whilst they are of full size in the 

 males. Many species, however, appear to be entirely desti- 

 tute of wings in both sexes ; and it will at once be perceived, 

 that this circumstance constitutes one of the chief difficulties 

 in the investigation of the specific rank of the individuals. 

 The amount of development of the sexual appendages at 

 the extremity of the body will, however, enable us in 

 most instances to determine whether an insect be immature 

 or arrived at its full growth. It is, however, very probable 

 that some of the more obscure species described in the 

 following pages may prove to be the immature states 

 of other, perhaps still unknown species, or that they are 

 the sexes of other insects regarded as distinct. As, more- 

 over, we are imperfectly acquainted with so many of the 

 species in consequence of possessing but unique specimens 

 (of the opposite sexes of which we are therefore entirely 

 ignorant), it will be perceived that equally great obstacles 

 exist against our proposing a satisfactory generic distribu- 

 tion of the family. The materials, in fact, which we possess 

 are not sufficient to allow us to tabulate either the groups 

 or the species ; and I think it right to mention these circum- 

 stances as a reason for the omission of these very necessary 

 additions to most modern monographs, which would other- 

 wise be comparatively easy of formation. An instance of 

 such difficulties will prove the impossibility, in our present 

 limited knowledge of the family, of satisfactorily establish- 

 ing the position of species known, as it were, only by halves. 

 Of the large new species from the Feejee Islands, a consi- 

 derable number of the apterous female specimens were first 

 received. With no clue to the condition of the male, the 



only step was to place the insect amongst those which were 

 known only as wingless species. The male, however, has 

 since been received by the British Museum, and proves 

 that the species belongs to the group which has winged 

 males and apterous females. A tabulation of the species 

 therefore, founded on the supposed apterous condition of 

 the one in question, would have been an erroneous one. 



Like the Tipulida and other long-legged insects, these 

 species are liable to lose their legs, especially in an early 

 stage of their existence ; but as successive moultings of the 

 skin take place without any material alteration in the 

 general form, the limbs are re-developed ; they are, how- 

 ever, generally distinguished by being of a smaller size than 

 the corresponding limbs on the opposite side of the body. 

 This has been the case with the typical specimen of Bacteria 

 mexicana (Heteronetnia mexicana, G. R. Gray), which has 

 one of its hind legs thus abbreviated, the corresponding 

 leg on the opposite side having been broken off. Hence 

 Mr. G. R. Gray was led to believe that the insect was nor- 

 mally furnished with small hind legs, and was thence led 

 to form it into a separate genus on that account. Several 

 instances will be observed, on looking over the Plates of 

 this work, in which a similar disproportion occurs in the 

 size of the feet. Charpentier also describes an instance of 

 this difference in the size of the legs in a specimen of 

 Bacillus Rossii, as a most extraordinary fact. 



As the species of this family are often well distinguished 

 from each other by the relative length of the different por- 

 tions of the legs, a description of which could not without 

 great detail be introduced into the specific descriptions, it 

 may be allowed me to state, that in the accompanying 

 engravings I have carefully measured the various parts of 

 each leg, as well as the other parts of the body. I have 

 also given detailed figures, under each species, of the struc- 

 ture of the terminal segments of the body, containing the 

 organs of generation, which, as has been long ago re- 

 marked by the most profound entomologists, afford the 

 most important specific characters. The six basal seg- 

 ments of the abdomen are in general simple, whilst the 

 three terminal ones are modified for the reception of the 

 organs in question. In the male, these three joints, on the 

 ventral side of the body, are shorter than the rest, and 

 swollen ; whilst in the female, the seventh ventral segment 

 is formed into a large, often boat-shaped, ovipositor or 

 operculum, containing within it the other organs of gene- 

 ration modified from the two terminal segments of the 

 body, forming in a few instances long exserted styles or 

 plates. In both sexes, also, the underside of the ninth 

 dorsal segment is furnished with two generally filiform 

 and very short setose styles, but which in the Australian 



