THE GRASSHOPPERS. 
155 
sometimes with a tinge of green, and the wings are rather 
longer than the covers. Some of these insects have been 
sent to me by a gentleman who found them piercing and 
laying eggs in the branches of a peach-tree. Another cor- 
respondent, who is interested in the tobacco culture in Con- 
necticut, informed me that they injured the plant by eating 
holes in the leaves. 
2. Grasshoppers. ( Gryllidce .) 
Grasshoppers, properly so called, as before stated, are those 
jumping orthopterous insects which have four joints to all 
their feet, long bristle-formed antennae, and in which the 
females are provided with a piercer, flattened at the sides, 
and somewhat resembling a sword or cimeter in shape. The 
wing-covers slope downwards at the sides of the body, and 
overlap only a little on the top of the back near the thorax. 
This overlapping portion, which forms a long triangle, is 
traversed, in the males, by strong projecting veins, between 
which, in many of them, are membranous spaces as transpar- 
ent as glass. The sounds emitted by the males, and varying 
according to the species, are produced by the friction of these 
overlapping portions together. 
In Massachusetts there is one kind of grasshopper which 
forms a remarkable exception to the other native insects of 
this family ; and, as it does not seem to have been named 
or described by any author, although by no means an un- 
common insect, it may receive a passing notice here. It is 
found only under stones and rubbish in woods, has a short 
thick body, and remarkably stout hind thighs, like a cricket, 
but is entirely destitute of wing-covers and wings, even when 
arrived at maturity. It belongs to M. Serville’s genus Plia- 
langopsis, and I propose to call it Phalangopsis maculata,* 
* Gryllu 8 maculatusy Harris. Catalogue of the Insects of Massachusetts. 6 
[ 6 According to the authority of Erich son, it was previously described with 
the name Phalangopsis lapidicola , Burm. — Uhler.] 
