560 
INSECTA. 
Mantis siccifolia [or the Walking Leaf], a species peculiar to the Sechelles Islands, Mauritius, &c., of which the 
female has very short antennae, with the wing-covers as long as the abdomen, but destitute of wings ; the male 
is much narrower, with long filiform antennae ; short wing-covers, and wings as long as the abdomen. 
[Latreille, in the Families Naturelles, Saint Fargeau and Serville, in the Encyclopedic methodique, the latter in 
his Histoire naturelle des Insectes Orthopteres, and Gray in his Synopsis of Phasmida, have constituted a great 
number of generic groups detached from those given above, and which are founded upon the variations 
in the developement of the wings in the dififerent sexes ; the proportions of the thoracic segments, antennae, &c. 
Messrs. Burmeister and Brull4 have considerably reduced the number of these groups in their works upon this 
order.] 
THE SECOND FAMILY OF THE ORTHOPTERA,— 
The Saltatoria, — 
Has the two hind feet remarkable for the size of their thighs, and for the very spined tibiae thus formed 
for leaping. The males call their females by making a chirping noise, which is sometimes produced 
by rubbing an inner part of the wing-covers like a talc-like mirror, against each other with rapidity, 
and sometimes by a similar alternate motion of the hind thighs against the wings and wing-covers, 
the thighs acting the part of the bow of a violin. The majority of the females lay their eggs in the 
ground. 
This family is composed of the genus 
Gryllus, Linn., — 
Which we divide as follows : — 
Some have the organ of sound in the males consisting of an inner part of the wing-covers in the 
shape of a mirror ; the ovipositor of the females is very long, exserted, and often sabre-shaped, and the 
antennse are either very long and slender at the tips, or of equal thickness throughout, but very short. 
In some of these, the wings and wing-covers are horizontal, the wings when folded up in repose 
forming long filaments, extending beyond the wing-covers, and the tarsi have only three joints, as in 
the genus 
Gryllus, Geoflxoy & Oliv. {Acheta, Fabr.), [and Achetidce of English authors]. 
They live in burrows, and ordinarily feed upon insects ; many are nocturnal. They form four subgenera. 
Gryllotalpa, Latr., having the tibiae and tarsi of the two fore-legs very broad, flat, and toothed, like hands 
proper for burrowing ; the other tarsi of the ordinary form. 
Gryllotalpa vulgaris [the Mole-cricket], is an inch and a half long, and of a brown colour. It is too well known 
from the injuries it commits in gardens and cul- 
tivated fields, living in the earth, where its fos- 
sorial fore-legs, like those of a Mole, enable it to 
form a burrow. It cuts or detaches the roots of 
plants, but less with the intention of feeding upon 
them as to form a passage, for it feeds, as it would 
seem, upon other insects or worms. The song 
of the male, heard only in the evening or night» 
is soft, and not disagreeable. [It is thence, in 
some parts of England, called Chur-worm.] The 
female forms, in June and July, at the depth of 
about six inches, a subterranean rounded cell, 
smooth in the interior, in which she deposits from 200 to 400 eggs ; the cell with its gallery resembles a bottle T 
with a long bent neck. The young live for some time in society. See for further details the observations of | 
M. le Feburier in the iVToMW. Cours d? Agriculture. [From more recent observations, it appears certain that the j 
Mole-cricket is obnoxious in gardens, &c., from its herbivorous habits. One species, G. didactyla, in the West || 
Indies, does great injury to the plantations of young sugar canes. See, also, the work of Kollar on injurious 
insects, translated by Miss Loudon.] 
Tridactylus, Oliv. {Xya, Illig.), are also fossorial in their habits, but only with the anterior tibiae ; the posterior 
tarsi are replaced by narrow, bent, moveable appendages ; the antennae are very short, and 10-jointed. Minute 
exotic insects. [The genus Ripipteryx, Newman, is closely allied to this genus.] 
Gryllus proper \_Gryllus acheta of Linnaeus, Acheta of English author.s], have not the feet fitted for burrowing, 
and the females have the ovipositor long and exserted ; the antennae are greatly elongated, pointed at the tip ; the 
ocelli are indistinct. The Field-cricket, Gryllus campestris, Linn., and the common House-cricket, G. domesticus^- 
belong to this genus. The first forms deep retreats in dry and hot situations, in which it stations itself to surprise 
other insects upon which it preys. The female deposits about 300 eggs ; the House-cricket inhabits the interior 
parts of houses, especially in the neighbourhood of fire-places, in which it makes its burrows, and breeds. The ; 
male produces a harsh noise ; that made by G. megacephalus can be heard at the distance of a mile. ' | 
Fig. 91 .— Gryllotalpa vulgaris. 
