ORTHOPTERA. 
557 
The Orthoptera are insects* which undergo a semicomplete metamorphosis, all the changes 
I being reducible to the increase and developement of wing-covers and wings, which begin to 
' appear under a rudimentary form in the pupa. This pupa and the larva resemble the perfect 
insect in other respects, walking and feeding in the same manner. 
The mouth of the Orthoptera is composed of a labrum, two mandibles, two maxillae, and 
four palpi ; those of the maxillae have always five joints ; the labial palpi, as in the Coleoptera, 
have only three. The mandibles are always very strong and horny ; the tonguelet is con- 
stantly divided into two or four plates. The form of the antennae varies less than in the Cole- 
optera, but they are generally composed of a much greater number of joints. Many, in 
addition to the composite eyes, have two or three ocelli. The under-side of the basal joints 
i of the tarsi is often fieshy, or membranous ; the basal joint in the Grasshoppers with short 
i antennae, presents three lobes, or divisions, on the under-side. [In these insects, however, the 
tarsi consist but of three joints ; these lobes, therefore, indicate the other two joints, which 
are evidently soldered with the first.] Many females are furnished with a real borer, formed 
of two plates, for depositing their eggs, which are often covered by a common envelope. 
The posterior extremity of the body is generally armed with appendages. 
I The intestines of the larvae resemble those of the perfect insects. 
I All the known Orthoptera are, without exception, terrestrial, both in their perfect and two 
previous states. Some are carnivorous, or omnivorous ; but the greater numbers feed upon 
living plants. The species which inhabit our climate have but a single generation in a year, 
the eggs being deposited towards the end of the summer. This is also the period of their 
last transformation. 
We divide the Orthoptera into two great families, [Cursoria and Saltatoria], a mode of dis- 
tribution confirmed by their anatomy ; the insects of the first having only tubular tracheae, 
whilst those of the second have vesicular tracheae. [We are indebted to M. Serville for a 
revision of the generic division of this order, published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles. 
Dr. Burmeister, in 1838, also w^orked out the order, adding many new genera, in his Hand- 
buck der Entomologie. In 1839, M. Serville, unacquainted with Burmeister’s work, published 
his Histoire NatureUe des Insectes Ortkopteres, in which he introduced many new genera, as 
well as some established by Burmeister, but with other names ; which of course must rank as 
synonymes. Dr. Burmeister has just published, in the third number of Germar’s Zeitschrift 
der Entomologie, a revision of these two works, with a view of pointing out the synonymes.] 
In the first family all the legs are alike, and solely fitted for running ; in the second, the 
thighs of the hind legs are much larger than those of the other feet, which gives them the 
power of leaping ; the males, moreover, make a sharp noise, or a kind of stridulation. These 
are the leaping, or musical Orthoptera. 
THE FIRST FAMILY OF THE ORTHOPTERA,— 
The CuasoRiA, — 
I Has the hind legs solely fitted, like the others, for running. They have generally the wing-covers and 
wings resting horizontally on the body ; the females do not possess a horny ovipositor. These form 
three genera, [Forficula, Blatta, and Mantis]. The first, that of 
The Earwigs {Forficula, Linn.), — 
Has three joints to the tarsi, the wings folded like a fan, and shutting up transversely beneath crus- 
taceous wing-covers, which are very short, and meet in a straight suture ; the body is linear, with two 
large scaly moveable appendages, which form a forceps at the posterior extremity of the body. The 
head is exposed; the antennae are filiform, inserted in front of the eyes, and composed of from 
twelve to thirty joints, in different species. The galea is slender, elongated, and nearly cylindrical ; 
• This order, the Lepidoptera and Strepsiptera, and the apterous hexapod insects, do not possess any aquatic species. 
