126 Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 
and katydids, all with long thread-like antennae; and Gryllidae, the crickets. 
The three silent and walking or running families are the Blattidae, cock¬ 
roaches; Mantidae, praying-horses and soothsayers; and Phasmidae, walk¬ 
ing-sticks or twig-insects. These families can be distinguished by the follow¬ 
ing table: 
KEY TO FAMILIES OF ORTHOPTERA. 
Non-leaping and mute; hind femora closely resembling those of the other legs and 
scarcely stouter or longer than the middle femora; tarsi 5-segmented; ovipositor 
concealed. 
Body oval, depressed; head nearly horizontal and nearly or quite concealed by 
the flattish shield-like pronotum; quickly running_(Cockroaches.) Blattidae. 
Body elongate, generally narrow; head free, often with constricted neck; pronotum 
elongate, never transverse; slowly walking. 
Fore legs spined and fitted and held for grasping; antennae usually shorter than 
body; pronotum usually longer than any other body segment; anal cerci 
jointed.(Praying Mantes.) Mantidae. 
Fore legs not fitted for grasping; antennae usually longer than body; pronotum 
short.(Leaf-insects and Walking-sticks.) PHASMimE. 
Leaping and usually capable of stridulation; hind femora stouter or longer, or both, 
than the other femora; the hind legs enlarged, for leaping; tarsi 4- or 3-segmented; 
head vertical; ovipositor usually visible. 
Antennae much shorter than the body (with few exceptions); ocelli three; tarsi 3-seg¬ 
mented; auditory organs, when present, situated on basal abdominal segment; 
ovipositor composed of two pairs of short, strong, slightly curving pieces. 
(Locusts.) AcRiDiimE. 
Antennae much longer than the body, delicately tapering; tarsi 3- or 4-segmented; 
auditory organs usually near the base of the fore tibiae; ovipositor usually pro¬ 
longed into a compressed blade, or needle, its parts compact. 
Tarsi 4-segmented; ocelli usually absent; ovipositor usually exserted and forming 
a strongly compressed, usually curving, blade with tip not expanded. 
(The long-horned grasshoppers.) Locustid^e. 
Tarsi 3-segmented; ocelli variable; ovipositor usually exserted and forming a 
nearly cylindrical straight needle, the tip somewhat expanded. 
(Crickets.) Gryllidae. 
Mrs. Smith takes it amiss when you ask permission to collect “roaches” 
in her house, and will prove to you any day the conspicuous absence of these 
unwelcome guests in the scrubbed and spotless pantry and kitchen. But 
with a candle go stocking-footed at night into the same kitchen and you 
will not unlikely find “good hunting.” Although but few of the thousand 
different kinds of cockroaches known in the world are to be found in the 
United States, these few, and particularly three or four imported foreigners 
among them, are very abundant, and, after dark, very much in evidence in 
their favorite habitat. Their chosen abiding-place is in kitchens, pantries, 
laundries, restaurants, bakeshops, etc., where the atmosphere is warm 
