ORTIIOPTERA. 
561 
3hjnnecopMla {Splicerium, Charpent.), is destitute of wings, and lias the body oval. 31. acervorum is of very 
small size, and lives in Ants’ nests [on the Continent]. 
Others [having, like the last, a talc-like spot at the base of the wing-covers in the male], have these 
organs disposed like a roof, and the tarsi have four 
joints ; the antennse are very long and filiform. The 
females have the ovipositor always exserted, com- 
pressed, and sabre or cutlass-shaped. These insects 
are herbivorous, and form the genus 
Locusta, Geoffr. [_Gnjllus, or GnjlUdce, of English 
authors]. 
[The Great Green Grasshopper, with long antennee], 
L. viridissima, is two inches long, green, without spots ; 
the ovipositor of the female is straight. 
' Fig. 92.— L. viridissima. Many species of this genus are destitute of wings, or 
'i _ ’ have wing-covers only, but of very small size. 
I [The species of this genus, or rather, family, have been distributed into a considerable number of generic groups 
I by Thunberg, Serville, Latreille, Burmeister, and others, founded upon external variations of form.] 
The others have the antennse filiform and cylindric, sword-shaped, or thickened at the tips, and as 
; long as the head and thorax ; the wings and wing-covers are roof-shaped when inactive, and the tarsi 
j are 3-jointed. The tonguelet, in the majority, has only two divisions ; the ocelli are three in number, 
I and constantly distinct ; the mandibles much toothed ; the abdomen conical, and compressed at the 
: sides. They leap with much more energy than the preceding, and have a much longer sustained 
jl flight. They feed upon vegetables with great voracity. They may be united into a single genus, that of 
i Acrydium, Geoffr.,— 
I Whicn [has been greatly divided into genera and subgenera by Serville, Burmeister, and Thunberg, but which] 
Latreille divides as follows. 
j Some have the mouth exposed, the tonguelet bifid, and a membranous pulvillus between the tarsal ungues, 
j Pneumora, Thunb., has the hind-legs shorter than the body, and scarcely fitted for leaping ; the abdomen is 
I bladder-shaped in one of the sexes. These species are only found in the southern parts of Africa. 
;| ^ Proscopia, Klug, is wingless ; the body is long and cylindrical ; the head, without ocelli, is prolonged in front 
j into a point or cone, bearing two very short 7-jointed antennae, pointed at the tip ; and the hind-legs are large and 
long. These insects are peculiar to South America, and have been well monographed by King, 
j Truxalis, Fab., has the antennae compressed, and of a prismatic form ; the head elevated into a pyramid. 
I Gryllus nasutus, Lam., and many other exotic species. 
Xyphicera, Latr. {Pampliagus, Thunb.), is composed of species which, in respect to their antennae, are interme- 
diate between Truxalis and the following genus. 
i| Acrydium proper, Gryllus, Fab. {Gryllus locusta, Linn.), \Locustid<e of British authors], differs from Pneumora 
in having the hind feet longer than the body ; the abdomen solid, and not bladder-like : and from Truxalis, in 
,1 having the head ovoid, and the antennai filiform, or terminated by a knot. Many species have on each side of the 
body, near the base of the abdomen, a large cavity, closed on the inside by a very thin pellicle. I have described 
I this organ in the eighth volume of the 3Iemoires du 3Iuseum, which has some influence either in the production of 
the chirping, or in flight. From analogy with the Cicada, I have compared it to a kind of tambour. The species 
j fly high in the air, and often in troops. Their hind wings are often agreeably coloured, especially with red and 
• j blue. Amongst the exotic species the thorax is often crested, warty, or otherwise singularly formed. Certain 
I species have been termed Migratory, from their uniting themselves in troops of incalculable numbers, and mi- 
i pating thiough the air in thick clouds, and in an astonishingly short time transform the places where they alight 
J into an arid waste. Their death even becomes a scourge, the air being infected by the immense masses of their 
I dead bodies. M. Miot, in his excellent translation of Herodotus, conjectures that the mass of dead bodies of 
[| winged serpents which the historian relates to have seen in Egypt, was a mass of the bodies of these migratory 
. locusts. This opinion perfectly accords with my owm. These insects are consumed in different countries of 
i j Afiica, the inhabitants using them for their own food, and as an article of commerce. They tear off the wings and 
wing covers, and then bake them. A great portion of Europe is often overrun by 
Giyllus migratorius, which is two inches and a half long, with brown wing-covers spotted with black, and a 
I, slightly elevated crest on the thorax. The eggs are enveloped in a glutinous secretion, forming a cocoon, which 
the insect is said to fasten to plants. [This is, however, refuted by the observations of Mr. Smirnove upon the 
locusts of Russia, published in the Transactions of the Linncean Society of London.'] It is common in Poland. 
I The south of Europe, Barbary, Egypt, &c., suffer similar devastations from some other species, of which some 
i are of larger size, as G. cegyptius, tataricus, Lam., &c., and which scarcely differ from G. lineola. Fab., which is 
[ found in the south of France ; a species peculiar to the same countries, and which is that which is eaten and pre- 
^ pared in Barbary, in the manner above detailed. The natives of Senegal dry another species, of which the body is 
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