  ACHETA (SCHIZODACTYLA) MONSTROSA.Plate XLIII. fig. 1. Order: Orthoptera. Section: Saltatoria. Family: AchetidÆ. Genus. Acheta, Fabr. Gryllus, Latr. Subgenus: Schizodactylus, BrullÉ. Acheta (Schizodactyla) Monstrosa. Elytris alisque caudatis convolutis, corpore luteo-fusco punctis nigris. (Long. Corp. 1 unc. 9 lin.) Syn. Gryllus monstrosus, Drury, App. vol. 2. Fabr. Ent. Syst. 2. 29. 2. (Acheta m.) Schizodactylus monstrosus, Aud. & BrullÉ Hist. Nat. Ins. tom. ix. s. g. 24. Donovan Ins. India, pl. 12. fig. 3. Habitat: India (Fabricius). AntennÆ considerably longer than the body, filiform. Mouth furnished with strong jaws, and four palpi; two of which are very long. General colour dusky olive brown. Wings and tegmina extending ACHETA MEMBRANACEA.Plate XLIII. fig. 2. Order: Orthoptera. Section: Saltatoria. Family: AchetidÆ. Genus. Acheta, Fabr. Gryllus Acheta, Linn. Gryllus, Latr. Acheta Membranacea. Luteo-fusca, pronoti annulis duobus nigris, alis corpore longioribus, tarsis posticis quinque spinosis. (Long. Corp. 2 unc. 3 lin.) Syn. Gryllus membranaceus, Drury, App. vol. 2. Habitat: Bay of Honduras, Musquito Shore. AntennÆ long, filiform. General colour yellowish brown. Thorax with two rings, almost black. Wings extending beyond their cases, terminating in two tails that are folded; each representing a two-edged sword. Abdomen furnished with two bristles. At the tips of the hinder tibiÆ are placed five spines, one being quite small; the middle ones have four, that are small; and the fore ones one. From the information furnished to Mr. Drury by Mr. Smeathman we learn that the children in Africa are, at the proper season, very busily employed digging out of the ground the females, when full of eggs, of a species exactly the size and form of this, on which they make an agreeable repast, roasting generally the whole animal, but eating only the eggs, which are contained in a bag, and resemble part of the roe of a large fish, deeming it very delicate food. These, like the European crickets, make a continual and noisy chirping all day long; and the open parts of the country are never without this music, which ceases neither night nor day. Some sing only in the day, others only in the night, and others again are never silent. Of those which sing only in the night, one small species, about the size of the Gryllus Campestris of LinnÆus, sallies out of its retreat early in the evening, making so loud and shrill a chirping that it may he said to pierce the ear; and, as certainly as it sings within doors, it silences a whole company. It fills a large room so completely with its note, which is something like the sound caused by rubbing a tobacco-pipe round the edge of a wine-glass, that those unaccustomed to it cannot tell how to direct their search after it. When they are looking for it, the noise will sometimes cease for half a minute, and begin again, when the searchers will be as much at a loss as ever. The black people, however, who have perhaps the most accurate ears in the world, readily find them, and generally without mercy put an end to their lives and their notes together. Different species sing their wild notes among the distant banks, and are heard in the rivers through the mangroves, though those trees often form a thick wood between the navigable |
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