244 
Pterophylla. INSECTS. Locdstid.e. 
liideons mouth must be capacious enough to hold, and 
strong enough to destroy, an insect of considerable size. 
Some, like the Pterochroza, 
where the first pair of wings 
are sometimes green, some- 
times brown, and blotched 
with red, likeleavesin spring, 
in summer, and in autumn. 
The delicate greens, purples, 
violets, and reds of some of 
them, are most fascinat- 
ingly beautiful. The Acan- 
thodis imperialts (Plate 5, 
Tympanophora peiiucida. fio- 5), is also a most hand- 
some creature, varied so 
finely with black and green ; the streaks on its black 
wings are very curious. It is a native of the mountains 
of Silhet. 
Tympanophora pelludda (fig. 149) is a curious 
green insect from King George’s Sound, described by 
the writer in Captain (now Governor Sir George) 
Grey’s “ Narrative,” vol. ii., p. 468. 
Fig. 150 is that of the Markia hystrix, or Pka- 
neroptera hystrix of Westwood — “ Arcana Entomolo- 
gica,” vol. ii., pi. 70, fig 2. 
I have separated this from Phaneroptera, owing to 
its general form differing, especially in the erect spine on 
the head, and the back of prothorax having two spines. 
Fig. 150. 
phylla concava) abundant. They lodge in the trees, 
and no sooner has the night come than they commence 
their incessant ringing note, which they do not leave 
off till the morning light comes in. In the “ Letters 
from Alabama,” Mr. Gosse says, “This sound has been 
heard but a few weeks, beginning, not gradually, but 
as it were in all places at once, or nearly so, and 
bursting forth into full and vigorous chorus.” He 
shows that this is caused by these insects attaining 
their perfect state almost simultaneously. He pro- 
ceeds — •“ I think it will give you a pretty correct notion 
of the tone and character of the particular concert in 
question, to fancy a score or two of people with shrill 
voices divided into pairs, each pair squabbling with each 
other. The organ producing this sound consists of a 
hard, glassy ridge in front, which, on being crossed by its 
fellow, creaks sharply, making the crink that is heard in 
the trees. There must, however, be three distinct but 
rapid crossings to make the whole sound represented 
by the word ‘ Katedid,’ which it can produce as quickly 
as one can pronounce the word. Occasionally it gives 
but a single impulse, which we may call uttering only 
one syllable of the word, but usually the three are 
heard, then an interval of a second, and again the 
word, and so on. Behind this ridge there is a trans- 
parent membrane, which appears tightly stretched over 
a semicircular rim, like the parchment of a drum, and 
which no doubt increases the sound bj’’ its vibrations.” * 
To this group of insects belongs the Katydid 
{Thlihoscelis camelifolia) of North America, 
so often mentioned in the poetry of the West 
The gregarious Orthoptera are everywhere 
dreaded. I have seen a note from Gueinzius, 
a German naturalist, who collected insects 
largely in South Africa, complaining sadly of 
the ravages of a wingless cricket allied to 
Bradyporus, and which gnawed the insects off 
his setting-boards — a habit not natural to them 
surely, and not likely to be acquired from either 
Bushmen or Hottentots having been in the habit 
of making insect collections. It indicates that 
the}" can eat, like cockroaches, animal as 
well as vegetable substances. 
The posterior legs are armed within and without with 
long sharp spines. The fore wings or tegmina are sharp 
angled on the inner tip. It is a very pretty insect, and 
says plainly, “ Dinna meddle wi’ me.” I have named it 
in compliment to Edward W. Mark, Esq. 
On the same plate of the “ Arcana ” Mr. Westwood 
figures another orthopterous insect with the back of the 
prothorax saddle-shaped, and with wing-like append- 
ages to the legs which are not spined. He places it in 
the genus Phaneroptera. The ovipositor is short and 
bent. I propose for this insect and a- second species, 
the generic name of Dysonia, the type being Dysonia 
alhipes (Westw. spec). The name is out of respect 
to the memory of my friend, the late Mr. David Dyson, 
who collected in Venezuela and Honduras, whence he 
sent and brought back wdth him magnificent zoological 
colle>,tions. He was attached at the time of his death to 
the Salford Museum. I hope elsewhere to give detailed 
descriptions of these and other genera of Orthoptera. 
Mr. Gosse in Alabama found the Katydid (Plero- 
Family — LOCUSTIDj® [Gi'asshoppers and Locusts). 
These insects have not an exserted ovipositor ; the 
first pair of wings or tegmina, and the second, are 
deflexed, and the antennae are generally short. Here 
come our common Grasshoppers. 
The Rev. Mr. Methuen during his travels in South 
Africa, f thus alludes to a swarm of locusts which passed 
overhead; he describes them as being “thick as the 
flakes in a snow-storm. Of the myriads contained 
in the flight, it would be impossible to form any cor- 
rect estimate ; its breadth exceeded my scope of vision, 
and its passage through the air occupied nearly half an 
hour, though the insect is a smart-flying one. Strag- 
glers, or deserters from the main army, which with a 
rushing noise passed swiftly above us, alighted in such 
abundance as to cover the ground ; yet the vast host 
» Letters from Alabama, pp. 182-185. 
t Life in the Wilderness by Eev. H. H. Methuen, p. 263. 
