



300 THE INSECT WORLD. 
> 
“The peasants,’ says Charles de Geer, “make these Locusts 
bite the warts which they often have on their hands, and the 
liquid which at the same time flows from the insect’s mouth into 
the wound, causes the warts to dry up and disappear. It is for 
this reason they have given them the name of Wart-bit or Wart- 
biter.” 
The Phaneropteras and the Copiphoras are exotic locusts. The 
Ephippigers are small species whose thorax, which is very convex, 
resembles a saddle. 
One often meets in the environs of Paris the Vine Ephippiger 
(Ephippiger vitium), which is greenish, with four brown stripes on 
its head. In this species the wing cases or elytra are almost 
obsolete, and the wings are reduced to mere arched scales whose 
friction produces astridulation or screeching noise. The females are 
provided with a similar apparatus, so that they perform duets.* 
The genus Grillacris resembles the crickets. It contains the 
Anostostomeé of New Holland, which are said to be destitute of 
wings, even in the perfect state. 
We arrive now at the redoubtable tribe of Acrydium, or Locust, 
whose fearful ravages are so well known. 
These are among the Orthoptera the best adapted for jump- 
ing. The thigh and the leg, folded together when at rest, 
are stretched out suddenly under the action of very powerful 
muscles. The body, resting then on the tarsi and on the flexible 
spines of the legs, is shot into the air to a great height. 
They fly very well, but the power of walking and running is 
denied to them, as it is also to the other Saltatoria. The females 
have no ovipositor. This peculiarity, and the formation of their 
antenna, which are very short, distinguish the Locusts from the 
Grasshoppers. 
The males, as we have already said, make a shrill stridulation 
by rubbing their thighs over their elytra. There is never more 
than one thigh in motion at a time; the insect using the right 
and the left by turns. The sound is made stronger by a sort of 
* The species of genus Saga sometimes reach extraordinary dimensions. Thus, 
in 1863, there was found in Syria, after a shower of ordinary locusts, a specimen 
of the Saga which was three inches and a quarter long. It was presented to the 
Museum of Natural History of Paris, by M. L. Delair. 



