80 
ORTHOPTERA. 
one sent in as destructive and there is here a large field for research. 
The student may be cautioned against accepting the reports of injury 
by Acridiids in Indian Museum Notes; often an entirely harmless 
species is sent in, being the first one to come to hand. Not more than 
two locusts and six grasshoppers are actually and positively known to 
be injurious in India. 
Whilst there is some information available as to the enemies of the 
two locusts, little is known of the checks on the increase of the family 
as a whole. The eggs of the locusts are attacked by Hymenopterous para¬ 
sites, the young by ground beetles ( Carabidce ), the adults by parasitic 
insects and the young of a mite ( Trombidium grandissimum, Koch.). An 
Oligochaet worm (Henleya Lefroyi, Bedd.) has been found destroying 
the eggs of one locust and probably attacks those of other Acridiids. 
Birds, monkeys and squirrels feed on locusts and the larger grasshoppers ; 
mynas, hoopooes and other birds eat hoppers and fossorial wasps store 
their nests with small hoppers. Certain fly and beetle grubs attack the 
eggs, but while these are probably insects of the families Bombyliidce and 
Cantharidce, respectively, the species concerned are not known. 
The family is a very large one, the largest of the Orthoptera, but no 
complete list exists. It is universally distributed through the tropical 
and temperate zones, with a large number of species. Indian forms are 
largely Indo-Malavan, or have a wide distribution over Southern and 
Eastern Asia ; a few are European and African. In India, the species 
are, so far as known, widely spread and not local, though Burmah 
appears to have many species not found in India. No catalogue of 
Indian species has been compiled and the information is buried in the 
literature of the past century. (See page 48.) Bolivar records 100 
species from a small area of South India, Brunner records 157 from 
Burmah. There are probably 500 recorded Indian species and at least 
1,000 now existing in India. Brunner divides the family into nine sub¬ 
families, which are on the whole well marked. Indian species fall 
mainly into five of these, the characters of which are as follows :— 
Tetrigince. The pronotum produced backwards over the abdomen, 
the tegmina lobelike, no pulvillus. 
Pneumorince (African). 
Mastacince. Antennae shorter than the anterior femora. Head 
short, 
