162 
ORTHOPTERA. 
skin of an onion. The shrilling organs in the males consist 
of a transparent glassy spot, bounded and traversed by strong 
veins, in the middle of the overlapping portion of each wing- 
cover, which part is proportionally much larger and longer 
than in the other grasshoppers ; but the transparent spot is 
rather smaller on the left than on the right wing-cover. The 
male is furthermore distinguished by having two small black 
spots or short dashes, one behind the other, on each wing- 
cover, on the outside of the transparent spot. The wings 
are green on their front margins, transparent, and reflecting 
a faint pink color behind. The piercer of the female is 
cimeter-shaped, being curved, and pointed at the end, and is 
about three tenths of an inch long. The hindmost thighs, in 
both sexes, are smooth and not spinous beneath ; there are 
two little spines in the middle of the breast ; and the anten- 
nae are very long and slender, and extend, when turned 
back, considerably beyond the end of the hind legs. During 
the evening, and even at other times in shady places, the 
males make a sharp clicking noise, somewhat like that pro- 
duced by snapping the point of a pen against the thumb-nail, 
but much louder. This kind of grasshopper very much 
resembles the Locusta aejilis of De Geer, which is found in 
Pennsylvania and the Southern States, but does not inhabit 
Massachusetts, and is distinguished from 
our species by having the wings nearly one 
tenth of an inch longer than the wing- 
covers, the antennae excessively long (two 
inches or more), and the piercer not quite 
so much curved as in our species, besides 
other differences which it is unnecessary 
to record here. As our species does not 
appear to have been named, or described 
by any previous writer, I propose to call 
it Orchelimum vulgare (Fig. 77), the com- 
mon meadow-grasshopper, the generical 
name signifying literally, I dance in the 
meadow. 
Fig. 77. 
