THE INSECT WORLD. 



79 



struct effective nets in which very young fish become entangled 

 and fall easy victims to the insect fishermen. Streams in which 

 these kinds of caddice-flies are abundant are not easily stocked 

 with fish unless the fi-y is so well grown as to be out of danger 

 fi-om this source. Practically, the insects are of no importance 

 to the agriculturist. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE ORTHOPTERA. 



Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids, etc. 



The order Orthoptera, or "straight-winged" insects, includes 

 those forms with biting mouth parts and an incomplete meta- 

 morphosis, commonly known as "earwigs," "grasshoppers," 

 "locusts," "crickets," and "roaches." 



The distinctive characters, aside from those just mentioned, 

 are that the fore-wings are firmer in texture than the secondaries, 

 and that the latter are folded fan-like, or plaited, when at rest. 

 They are then covered by the primaries, which are usually nar- 

 row and of little use in flight, resembling in this respect the wing- 

 covers of the beetles, and here termed "tegmina." With few 

 unimportant exceptions the insects belonging to this order are 

 herbivorous, and among them are some of the most destructive 

 pests to agriculture, such as the migratory locusts or grasshop- 

 pers, which have been known and dreaded since the dawn of 

 history, and the "Rocky Mountain locust," of evil repute in 

 our own country. 



First come the ForficulidcB , or ear-wigs, generally accepted 

 as forming a separate order under the name Dermaptera (skin- 

 wing) or Euplexoptera (well-folded wing). They differ from all 

 the other Orthoptera by having a pair of anal forceps and by 

 their resemblance to the Staphylinidce, a family of half-winged 

 beetles. The wing-covers are short and thick, not extending to 

 the middle of the flattened abdomen, and the large hind wings 

 are first plaited fan-like around a point near the middle of the 

 anterior margin, and are then transversely folded into a neat little 



