DIVISIONS. 
143 
wing-covers projecting, like little scales, from the back near 
the thorax. These pupae are active and voracious, and in- 
crease greatly in size, which is not the case with the insects 
that are subject to a complete transformation, for such never 
eat or grow in the pupa state. When fully grown, they cast 
off their skins for the sixth or last time, and then appear in 
the adult or perfect state, fully provided with all their mem- 
bers, with the exception of a few kinds which remain wingless 
throughout their wdiole lives. The slight changes to which 
the Orthoptera are subject consist of nothing more than a 
successive series of moultings, during which their wings are 
gradually developed. These changes may receive the name 
of imperfect or incomplete transformation, in contradistinc- 
tion to the far greater changes exhibited by those insects 
which pass through a complete transformation in their pro- 
gress to maturity. 
Cockroaches are general feeders, and nothing comes amiss 
to them, whether of vegetable or animal nature ; the Mantes 
or soothsayers are predaceous and carnivorous, devouring 
weaker insects, and even those of their own kind occasion- 
ally ; but by far the greater part of the Orthopterous insects 
subsist on vegetable food, grass, flowers, fruits, the leaves, 
and even the bark of trees ; whence it follows, in connection 
with their considerable size, their great voracity, and the 
immense troops or swarms in which they too often appear, 
that they are capable of doing great injury to vegetation. 
The Orthoptera may be divided into four large groups : — 
1. Runners ( Orthoptera cursoria*'), including earwigs and 
cockroaches, with all the legs fitted for rapid motion ; 
2. Graspers ( Orthoptera raptorial), such as the Mantes, or 
soothsayers, with the shanks of the fore legs capable of being 
doubled upon the under side of the thigh, which, moreover, 
is armed with teeth, and thus forms an instrument for seizing 
and holding their prey ; 
* These are the four divisions proposed by Mr. Westwood in his “ Introduc- 
tion,” who, however, applies to them their Latin names only. 
