Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 125 
All the Orthoptera have biting mouth-parts, and bite off and chew their 
food, which is usually live vegetable matter, especially green leaves, 
although the members of one family are predaceous, preying on other insects, 
and those of another family prefer dried vegetable or animal matter. The 
metamorphosis is incomplete, the young, when hatched, resembling the parents 
except for small size and lack of wings. The young have the same feeding 
habits and. same haunts as the adults, and by development and growth the 
Fig. 156.—The immature stages of a locust, Melanoplus femur-nibrum. a, just hatched, 
without wing-pads; b, c , d, and e after first, second, third, and fourth moultings 
respectively, showing appearance and development of wings; /, adult, with fully 
developed wings. (After Emerton.) 
wings and parental stature are soon acquired. The name of the order is 
derived from the straight-margined leathery fore wings, or elytra, whose 
chief function is to cover and protect the larger membranous hind wings 
on which the flight function depends. Among the leaping Orthoptera the 
hindmost legs are very large and long, and when at rest or in walking the 
“knee-joints” of these legs are much higher than the back of the insect. 
The three singing and leaping families are the Acridiidas, locusts and 
grasshoppers with short antennas; Locustidas, meadow green grasshoppers 
