166 
ORTHOPTERA. 
bly act in some measure to increase tlie reverberation of the 
sound, like the cavity of a violin. When a locust begins to 
play, he bends the shank of one hind leg beneath the thigh, 
where it is lodged in a furrow designed to receive it, and 
then draws the leg briskly up and down several times against 
the projecting lateral edge and veins of the wing-cover. 
He does not play both fiddles together, but alternately, for a 
little time, first upon one, and then on the other, standing 
meanwhile upon the four anterior legs and the hind leg 
which is not otherwise employed. It is stated that, in Spain, 
people of fashion keep these insects, which they call grillo^ in 
cages, for the sake of their music. 
Locusts leap much better than grasshoppers, for the thighs 
of their hind legs, though shorter, are much thicker, and 
consequently more muscular within. The back part of' the 
shanks of these legs, from a little below the knee to the end, 
is armed with strong sharp spines, arranged in two rows. 
These may serve as means of defence, but the lower ones also 
help to fix the legs firmly against the ground when the insect 
is going to leap. The power of flight in locusts is, in general, 
much greater than that of grasshoppers ; for the wing-covers, 
being narrow, do not, like the much wider ones of grass¬ 
hoppers, so much impede their passage through the air; while 
their wings, which are ample, except in a few species, and 
when expanded together form half of a circle, have very 
strong joints, and are moved by very powerful muscles within 
the chest. From the shoulders of the wino:s several stout ribs 
or veins pass towards the hinder margin, spreading apart, 
when the wings are opened, like the sticks of a fan, and are 
connected and strengthened by little crossing veins, which 
form a kind of network. The same structure exists in the 
wings of grasshoppers, but in them the longitudinal ribs are 
not so strong, and the network is much more delicate. Hence 
the flight of grasshoppers is short and unsteady, while that of 
locusts is longer and better sustained. Many locusts, when 
they fly, make a loud whizzing noise, the source of which does 
