THE ORTHOPTERA. 
341 
represented in the engraving on the opposite page. The body of 
the Empusa is decorated with a mixture of most delicate grey, 
green, white, and violet tints, and the wings of the adults are of 
a clear sea-green colour, the borders and the nervures being lilac. 
The Phasmidce are, however, the most curious of all insects. 
They approach the Mantidce in general appearance, but are dis- 
tinguished by their fore legs being of the ordinary form, and 
suited, like the rest, for walking. Unfortunately their incomplete 
metamorphosis has not been studied carefully. 
All the Orthoptera which we have hitherto noticed may be 
called walkers or runners ; but those which we are now about to 
describe are termed jumpers or leapers. 
The grasshoppers are true jumpers, and have their hind legs 
so formed that they can lift themselves from the ground and jump 
considerable distances ; the females have a long and stout ovi- 
positor, which has a sabre shape, and is attached to the hind part 
of the body. Nearly all the “jumpers” have well-developed 
wings ; the front ones, or the elytra, are long, and the posterior 
are of considerable size ; but there are some species whose wings 
are always in a rudimentary state. In every instance the first 
pair of wings of the male insects are so formed that they can 
produce musical sounds. At the base of the elytra there is a 
greater or less space, which is covered by a thin, transparent, 
and very tense membrane, and it is situated between some twisted 
and enlarged nervures. When the insects are anxious for a 
little female society at eventide, they elevate their wings, and rub 
them one upon the other, and produce a sound which is rendered 
intense, sharp, and chirping by the vibration of the membrane. 
The grasshoppers fly easily, in spite of their heavy bodies ; but 
they walk with difficulty, in consequence of the disproportion 
which exists between their front and hind legs ; so they usually 
move from place to place by a series of jumps. The jumping is 
produced by the action of the large muscles of the thighs acting 
upon the long legs and feet. These insects use their ovipositor for 
the purpose of burying their eggs in the soil ; and it is interest- 
ing to observe that several species which live almost in the same 
manner have different modes of egg-laying, and their ovipositors 
are therefore variously fashioned. The species of the grasshopper 
