Of the Crusader Carrion Beetle? Of the Big Gravedigger? Of the Cabinet Beetle? Of the Wood-eating Beetles? What is said of the herbivorous Beetles? Of the Spring Beetles? Of the Lightning Spring Beetle? What gives the name to the Capricorn Beetles? What is said of the Painted Capricorn? Of the Stag Beetle Capricorn? Of the Long-armed Capricorn? Of the Spanish Fly? What is said of the Curculios? What of the Palm Weevil? What of the Leaf-eaters ?

CHAPTER XXV.

STRAIGHT-WINGED INSECTS.

438. THE second order is that of the Orthoptera, or Straight-winged Insects. Their wings, when not in use, are folded lengthwise like a fan, and are extended straight along the top or the sides of the back. These are covered by a pair of thicker wings, or, rather, wing-shaped members, which in the Grasshoppers and the Locusts are long and narrow, and are joined together on the back, making two slopes like the roof of a house. These wingcovers are intermediate between the stiff, horny elytra of the Beetles and the membranous wings of some other insects.

439. The insects of this order do not go through with a complete metamorphosis. They do not pass at all into the torpid pupa state, but are active during the whole period of their existence. At first they are destitute of wings; but they become winged as they grow, casting off their skins about six times during the process. They are divided into four families: 1. The Cursoria, or Run2. The Raptoria, or Graspers. 3. The Ambulatoria, or Walkers. 4. The Saltatoria, or Jumpers.

ners.

440. The family of Cursoria includes the Cockroaches and the Earwigs. There are with us two kinds of Cockroaches the native ones, found under stones in the field, and those which have, like the Rats, been introduced from other countries, and live in our houses. These vo

racious animals, troublesome as they are here, are vastly more so in some other countries. It is said that some houses in St. Petersburg became so infested with them that no one could live in them, and they were burned down to destroy these insects.

441. Earwigs are little insects having a pair of nippers, shutting like scissors, at the hinder end of the body. They eat both fruit and flowers, disfiguring the latter with holes. They are very timid, running for some crevice whenever disturbed, and thinking that they are safe if they put their heads under cover, and thus get out of sight of danger. They are apt, when frightened, to plunge down into the bottom of a flower, if they happen to be on one, leaving, however, their curious forked tails. standing up among the stamens. Their name is not an appropriate one, for they have really never been known to enter the human ear. These insects are very different from the animal so often called by this name in this country, which is really not an insect.

442. Among the Raptoria is that singular insect the Mantis Religiosa, or Praying Mantis, Fig. 199. It is so

Fig. 199.-Mantis Religiosa.

called from the attitude which it assumes when it is watching for its prey. The front of its thorax is raised, and the two fore legs are held up together, like a pair of arms, ready to seize any insect that may come within its reach. These insects are extremely voracious. If two are kept together without food, they fight until one is killed, and the victor devours his adversary. Fights

between these insects are among the sports of the Chinese, the pleasure being the same as that which is derived from cock-fights and bull-fights.

443. The family of the Ambulatoria is a very small one, including those very singular animals, Walkingsticks, Walking-leaves, etc. They lead a sluggish life among the branches of shrubs, living on the young shoots. Their color and shape being so much like those of things around them, enable them commonly to escape observation. Some of them, as the Walking-stick, Fig. 200, have no wings, and look like dead twigs, the legs

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Fig. 200.-Walking-stick.

appearing like little branches. There are found of this insect twenty species in South America, three in North America, three in Europe, forty in Asia, twenty-seven in Australia, and two in Africa. The Leaf Insect, Fig. 201, is of the same family. It is found in South America.

Fig. 201.-The Leaf Insect.

It resembles a leaf both in shape and color, and the wings have even the veinings of a leaf.

444. The family of Saltatoria, or Jumpers, is a very extensive one. It comprises the Crickets, the Grasshoppers, and the Locusts. The Crickets are so well known to you that I need not describe them. They are mostly inhabitants of the ground, in which many of them

Fig. 202.-The Mole Cricket.

burrow. One spe

cies, the Mole Cricket, Figure 202, is so named because its anterior extremities, and its general habits also, are similar to those of the Mole. It is a great digger. The female forms, in

connection with its burrow, a smooth, round cell, which, with the passage leading to it, resembles a bottle with a long bent neck. Here it deposits from two to four hund

red eggs. The Tree Cricket, Fig. 203, is a very delicate insect. Its color is pale ivory; its antennæ and legs are very long, and its wingcovers are thin, and are prettily ornamented with three oblique raised lines. Its familiar shrill sound is produced only by the male Cricket, by raising up the wing-covers and rubbing them together. These differ decidedly from the other members of the Cricket tribe in living wholly on trees. The female deposits her eggs in the autumn, in incisions which she makes in the branches, and they are hatched in the following summer, the young Crickets obtaining their perfect state with us in August.

Fig. 203.--Tree Cricket.

1

445. The Grasshoppers differ from the Crickets in having the wing-covers, which in the latter lie horizontally flat, so arranged as to make two slopes, like the roof of a house. Of the many species I will notice but one, the well-known Katydid of this country. It is about one and a half inches long, and its expanded wings measure together three inches. The whole insect is green, the wings being pale green, and the wing-covers a dark green. The wings are gauze-like, and are exceedingly delicate. The male, as seen in Fig. 204, has, at the base

Fig. 204.-Male Katydid.

or root of each wing-cover, a stout horny ridge surrounding a stiff, thin membrane, making two drum-heads. It is by the rubbing of these together that the peculiar sound of this insect is produced. The female Katydid has no such apparatus, and therefore is perfectly still. It has at the end of its body, as seen in Fig. 205 (p. 258),