Landois has observed another important fact, namely, that in the
females of the Acridiidae, the stridulating teeth on the femora remain
throughout life in the same condition in which they first appear during
the larval state in both sexes. In the males, on the other hand, they
become further developed, and acquire their perfect structure at the
last moult, when the insect is mature and ready to breed.
From the facts now given, we see that the means by which the males of
the Orthoptera produce their sounds are extremely diversified, and are
altogether different from those employed by the Homoptera. (43. Landois
has recently found in certain Orthoptera rudimentary structures closely
similar to the sound-producing organs in the Homoptera; and this is a
surprising fact. See Zeitschrift fur wissenschaft, Zoolog. B. xxii.
Heft 3, 1871, p. 348.) But throughout the animal kingdom we often find
the same object gained by the most diversified means; this seems due to
the whole organisation having undergone multifarious changes in the
course of ages, and as part after part varied different variations were
taken advantage of for the same general purpose. The diversity of means
for producing sound in the three families of the Orthoptera and in the
Homoptera, impresses the mind with the high importance of these
structures to the males, for the sake of calling or alluring the
females. We need feel no surprise at the amount of modification which
the Orthoptera have undergone in this respect, as we now know, from Dr.
Scudder s remarkable discovery (44. Transactions, Entomological
Society, 3rd series, vol. ii. ( Journal of Proceedings, p. 117).),
that there has been more than ample time. This naturalist has lately
found a fossil insect in the Devonian formation of New Brunswick, which
is furnished with the well-known tympanum or stridulating apparatus of
the male Locustidae. The insect, though in most respects related to
the Neuroptera, appears, as is so often the case with very ancient
forms, to connect the two related Orders of the Neuroptera and
Orthoptera.
I have but little more to say on the Orthoptera. Some of the species
are very pugnacious: when two male field-crickets (Gryllus campestris)
are confined together, they fight till one kills the other; and the
species of Mantis are described as manoeuvring with their sword-like
front-limbs, like hussars with their sabres. The Chinese keep these
insects in little bamboo cages, and match them like game-cocks. (45.
Westwood, Modern Classification of Insects, vol. i. p. 427; for
318