Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 8).
- Date:
- 1830-33
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 8). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![wings and legs drop off; when thus pre- pared, they are said to taste like craw- fish. Mr. Adanson {Voyage to Senegal) sayg, however, that he would willingly re- sign whole armies of locusts for the mean- est fish. The locust constituted a com- mon food among the Jews, and Moses :ias specified the different kinds which they were permitted to eat. Even these thou mayest eat; the locust after his kind; the hald locust after his kind ; the heetle after his kind ; and the grasshopper after ; iis kind. (Levit.x\, v. 23.) The popular term grasshopper is also applied, and with more propriety, to in- sects in another group of the grylli—the gonia of Linnaeus (locusta ofFabricius). They are distinguished from the locusts of the preceding section, by their very long, bristle-shaped, or tapering antennae, and by having four joints to their feet, ;:nd an exserted oviduct. The latter in- strument often has the form of a curved sword or sickle, and is used in preparing a hole, and conveying the eggs to their appropriate nidus beneath the soil. These insects have long, slender hind legs, form- ed for leaping : hut the males do not play with them against their wing-cases, for the production of sounds. Their musical ,is consist of a pair of frames, within i of which is stretched a transparent membrane. These tabourets are affixed to that part of the base of each wing-case which laps on the top of the back, and one lies directly over and in contact with the other ; so that, whenever the wing- cases are opened and shut, the frames grate together, and, as often as the shuf- motion is repealed, a grating sound is produced. These musical grasshoppers are usually of a green color, and are noc- turnal in their habits. During the day- time, they conceal themselves in the grass or the foliage of trees : but at night, they quit their lurking places, and the joyous male commences the song of love with which he recreates his silent partner. It would be well to restrict the popular ap- pellation grasshoppers to these insects, which have been distributed into several modern genera. Two only need here be mentioned, viz. conoccphalvs (Thunberg), [acrila, Kirby], including the species whose head terminates in front in a coni- cal projection, and pterophylla (Kirby), whose head is obtuse, and not produced in front. The latter genus contains the well-known insect, called, from its note, katy-did, pterophylla concava [locusta con- cava, Say). Its large, oblong-oval, concave wing-cases, inwrap the abdomen, and meet at their edges above and below, somewhat like the two sides or valves of a pea-pod. Perched on the topmost twig of a tree, the insect begins his nocturnal call by separating, closing, and re-opening his wing-cases. The friction of the ta- bouret-frames upon each other, thrice, produces three distinct notes, which is the usual number ; occasionally, only two are given, when the wing-cases are mere- ly opened and shut once. The mechan- ism of these organs reverberates, and in- creases the sound to such a degree, that it may be heard, in the stillness of the night, at the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile. At intervals of three or four min- utes, he repeats his obstreperous babble, while rival songsters echo the notes, and the woods resound with the call of katy- did, she did, the live-long night. The tetti- gonia; of Linnaeus, or grasshoppers above- mentioned, are not to be confounded with the insects referred to the modern genus tettigonia of Olivier, Lamarck and La- treille. The former, with all the grylli of Linnajus, have jaws for masticating their food, and belong to the order orthoptera ; while the latter, with the cicada or har- i'est-J!y (misnamed locust), have suctori- ous tubes, for puncturing plants and im- bibing their juices, and belong to the order omopttra. In the genus cicada, the anten- na' are six-jointed ; there are three ocelli, and the legs are not adapted for leaping. In tettigonia, the antenna' are three-joint- ed ; there are only two ocelli, the thorax is transverse, not produced behind, and the legs are formed for leaping. To the genus tettigonia (Olivier) may he referred the minute insect which attacks the grape vine, and injures it to a great extent by noxious punctures, and the exhaustion of its sap. When the leaves of this valua- ble plant are agitated, the little tettigonia leap or fly from them in swarms. The infested leaves soon become yellow, sickly, and, losing their vitality, give to the plant, in midsummer, the aspect it assumes, nat- urally, at the approach of winter. On turning up the leaves cautiously, the in- sects will be seen busily employed upon the under side, with their proboscis thrust into the tender epidermis. These insects [kiss through all their metamorph, which are imperfect, upon the plant ; the wingless larva? and pupae, having a gene- ral resemblance to the perfect insects, feed together in the same manner, and their innumerable white cast skins will h,. lbund adhering to every part of the leaves. This species survives the winter in the perfect state, hybemating beneath](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136774_0048.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
