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ORTHOPTERA. 
Amonc the Orthoptera* we meet with some of the largest of insects, 
and particularly those which are of strange and extraordinary 
shapes. The best known insects of this order are the Mantes, 
Cockroaches, Earwigs,t Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets, &c. 
The Orthoptera have the anterior wings long, narrow, half- 
horny. These are elytra, which serve as cases for their second 
wings, as is the case with the Coleoptera. But the elytra of the 
Orthoptera are less solid and less complete than those of the 
Coleoptera. Moreover, they generally over-lap each other 
when the insect is at rest, which is another distinctive charac- 
teristic. The second wings are membraneous, very. broad and 
veined ; and, when at rest, are folded up like a fan. The mouth 
is composed of free pieces. The mandibles, the jaws, and the 
two lips, always well developed, show them to be insects which 
grind their food. Their voracity, and the rapid way in which 
they multiply, sometimes make these insects the pest of the 
country. Above all, they are to be met with in hot countries, 
where they cause such great damage that all vegetation disappears 
on their passage. There are not a great variety of species of 
Orthoptera. They are insects whose metamorphoses are incom- 
plete; that is, they undergo only trifling changes from the moment 
when the eggs are hatched to the time when the insect is fully 
developed. 
When it leaves the egg, the young one resembles its parents ; 
* From 6p60¢, straight, and wrepov, wing, on account of the manner in which the 
under-wings are folded under the upper.—-Ep. 
+ Made a separate Order, Dermaptera, by. Kirby.—Ep. 






























