The crickets, grasshoppers, walking sticks, praying mantes, and cockroaches, strange as it may seem, are all near relatives to each other.

They all belong to one large family or order, the Orthoptera.

Or-thop-te-ra, is it not a hard word!

It will not seem so hard when you know what it means.

It comes from two Greek words orthos, meaning straight, and pteron, meaning a wing.

Straight-wing.

And do you know, it does not mean that the upper wings are straight, but that the under wings are folded down in long straight lines.

Now let us see if we can tell in what ways all of our Orthoptera are alike.

They all have—?

"Four wings"—that is right, little Nell.

What, John? the walking sticks have no wings?

Not our walking sticks, but yet they belong to a winged family. You remember the tropical walking sticks that have queer leaf-like wings, do you not?

Are the four wings alike?

No, John says, the upper ones are narrow and stiff and serve as wing covers.

The inner ones are broader and more delicate. They fold up when not in use and are used to fly with.

Very good indeed, John. Now I will tell you something. The Orthoptera all have mouth parts made to bite with. They do not bite anything but what they eat, however. They are quite harmless so far as we are concerned.

The young Orthoptera look like the old ones, only they have no wings. They hatch out of the egg with a head, a six-legged thorax, and an abdomen.

Now, come, let us look at all of our orthopterous friends again, cockroaches first.

How do they get about, John?

Yes, indeed, they run, the rascals. They run fast too. They are flat and their six legs are very much alike. They are well built for running and hiding in cracks.

Suppose we call them the Running Orthoptera.

Now, look at our mantis.

He does not run very much. How is he different from the others?

Ah, yes, he has big front legs, and little Nell says he grabs things with them.

So he does. Now, what shall we call these grabbers?

The Grabbing Orthoptera, Ned says.

Suppose we say instead the Grasping Orthoptera, because grasping sounds a little better than grabbing. Do you not think so?

Now for Mr. Walking Stick.

We cannot very well call him a member of the Running Orthoptera, can we?

Ah, Mollie has it. We must call his kind the Walking Orthoptera.

His six legs are all long and slender, and he moves them slowly.

Now for those fellows with the long hind legs, the locusts and katydids and crickets. Yes, all of you are ready to name them.

We call them—what?

May says, the Hopping Orthoptera.

John thinks Jumping Orthoptera would sound better.

And that is what we name them, the Jumping Orthoptera.

How many kinds of Jumping Orthoptera are we acquainted with, Ned? Now, think before you speak.

He says we know the shorthorned grasshoppers, or locusts, the longhorned, or meadow, grasshoppers, and the crickets.

Very well done, Ned.

May wants to know what has become of the katydids and the cricket-like grasshoppers—she thinks Ned has left them out.

Ned says they belong to the longhorned grasshoppers.

Now you shall have a list of the Orthoptera that will help you to remember them.

If we can group together things that are like each other, it is easier to remember them.

Order Orthoptera.
Running Orthoptera.
Cockroaches, Croton Bugs.
Grasping Orthoptera.
Praying Mantis.
Walking Orthoptera.
Walking Sticks.
Jumping Orthoptera.
Shorthorned Grasshoppers, or Locusts.
Longhorned, or Meadow, Grasshoppers.
Crickets.

There are a great many species of Orthoptera in the world, and we have seen but a very few of them.

But I can tell you, we feel a little better acquainted with you orthopterous fellows than we did.

The dragon fly says we have not given him a place.

But, dear dragon fly, you belong to another family. You are not an orthopterous insect.

Your order is called the Odo-na-ta.

The wings of the Odonata are very different from those of the Orthoptera.

You remember how they are?

Yes, Ned, they are stiff and covered with a close network of fine veins, and all four of them are alike.

No wing covers, you see.

I do not know why they have the name Odonata.

The young Odonata are not like their parents, excepting that they have a head, a thorax with six legs, and an abdomen. But they certainly do not look like their parents!

No, John, the May flies do not belong to the Odonata. Their wings are quite different.

Do you not remember how small the hind wings are?

The name of their order is Eph-e-mer-i-da.

There is a big name for a little insect!

It comes from the Greek word ephemeros, and you know what it means.

What? Has everybody forgotten about the dainty little ephemerÆ, that live but a day?

That is what ephemeros means, lasting but a day.

The stone flies have four wings, but they are not like those of the Odonata, or of the Ephemerida.

Do you remember how the hind wings are folded?

Yes, May, in plaits, so these are the plaited wings, or Ple-cop-te-ra, from pteran, a wing, and plecos, plaited.

The little silver fish, as you remember, has no wings at all, so its order is called Thy-sa-nu-ra, from its bristle tail, thysanos, in Greek, meaning a tassel, and oura, the tail.