which can be easily distinguished by their lace-like wings, the members
of this family cannot be confused with other groups. The long slender
prothorax, supporting a very flexible narrow head, forms an elongate
neck, to which are attached, well in front, the formidable spined fore
legs, which are seldom used as means of progression, but as weapons of
offence to capture other insects upon which they prey, for they are
tigers of the insect world, lying in wait, perfectly motionless, with
their colouration adapted to the foliage among which they hunt. The two
apical portions of the thorax, and slender body, which in the ordinary
type is covered with two pairs of wings, the first pair narrow like
that of a grasshopper and the hind pair fan-shaped, with the two pairs
of slender legs, are orthopterous; while the front portion, consisting
of the narrow head turned down in front into a pointed mouth, with
large projecting eyes, and thread-like antennae, show its carnivorous
habits. The female deposits her eggs upon the twigs or bark of trees
in an almond-shaped mass, consisting of regular rows of elongate eggs
piled above each other, with the tips all pointing outward, and which
are covered with an enveloping coat of a sticky brown secretion that,
as it hardens in the sun, becomes dry and papery. When the baby mantids
emerge from the eggs they are attached to them by two slender threads
fastened to the anal appendages (cerci); they hang head downward, like
a mass of tiny squirming caterpillars, until they cast their first
larval skin, when they fall to the ground, soft, wingless, little
stick-like creatures, ready to hunt for themselves. These egg masses
are very conspicuous objects in the bush and orchard, and are often
received from my correspondents with enquiries as to what they are, and
whether they should be destroyed. As each is the home of some hundreds
of little creatures that destroy thousands of smaller injurious
insects, they should never be disturbed by the gardener.
The commonest species in our gardens is the “Thick shouldered green
mantis,” _Orthodera ministralis_ better known under the name of
_Orthodera prasina_, but as it was described many years before under
the first name, the latter has become a synonym. It is about 1½
inches in length, somewhat stout and thickset, the front portion of
the neck-like prothorax as wide as the head, fitting up close against
it, and narrower where it joins the mesothorax. It has well developed
wings and flies very well, but it usually remains immovable and alert,
resting on a leaf as green as its own bright coat, its treacherous
deadly fore-legs are raised, ready to lash out and seize any incautious
moth or butterfly that comes within reach, and it will often secure
one larger than itself. It ranges from Tasmania round to North-west
Australia, and has been recorded from New Zealand, into which place it
could have been easily introduced from Australia with foliage plants.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.
=Figs.= =17= and =18=.--Australian Mantidae.
17. _Tenodera australasiae_ (Leach), the long-winged
mantis.
18. _Archimantis latistylus_ (Serv.), the short-winged
mantis.
(Original photo. Burton.)]
The Genus _Archimantis_ contains five species described from Australia,
of which _Archimantis latistylus_ is the commonest species about
Sydney. It measures 4 inches in length, is furnished with large well
developed wings, and varies in colour from dull green to brownish
yellow; the female is smaller, with more thickened body and shorter
wings. The fore-wings, or more properly elytra, are brown, rounded
at the tips, often marked in the centre with a dark spot; the hind
wings are semitransparent. It hides among the dull-coloured foliage of
the Leptospermum and Melaleuca bushes, which assimilate well with its
own uniform tint. This species will be found, figured, in colours in
McCoy’s “Zoology of Victoria, Decade xiii.”
_Archimantis montrosa_, a slightly larger species, comes from Victoria
River, North Australia; the type was taken by Elsey, naturalist to the
Gregory Exploring Expedition in 1856. _A. armatus_, a smaller brown
species, from the same district, has the prothorax curiously spined on
the outer margins, and the under-surface covered with coarse tubercles.
_Tenodera australasiae_ is another of our best known species, not
uncommon about Sydney in the summer months on the low scrub. It was
first described, and figured in colours, by Leach in his “Zoological
Miscellanies” 1815; and Westwood states that the type is in the
Banksian Collection in the British Museum. It has a wide range over
Australia, and is also a native of New Caledonia, New Guinea and
Ceram. It is a more brightly-tinted insect, 3½ inches in length, of a
general yellowish brown colour; the apical edge of the elytra striped
with green, followed with a stripe of pale salmon colour, and the rest
semitransparent; the wings are tinged with pink along the front margin,
the whole mottled with black and brown, thickest towards the body.
There are a number of active, little, black or dark brown mantids
with curiously shaped bodies that run about on the dull coloured tree
trunks, seldom flying, (though many of them are winged), but trusting
to their imitative tints to escape observation; several of our species
belong to the Genus _Paroxypilus_.
Family 7. Stick or Leaf Insects.
PHASMIDAE.
These are sometimes in general appearance not unlike mantids, but the
distinctive characteristics are well defined; for though the prothorax
is more or less elongated into a neck, and the abdomen, wings, and hind
legs long, it will soon be noticed that the fore pair of legs are not
spined, but are regular walking or clinging legs like the hind ones.
The head is oval or rounded, with a somewhat simple mouth adapted for
chewing foliage; smaller eyes; and large, thicker jointed antennae.
[Illustration: Plate V.--ORTHOPTERA.
Family PHASMIDAE.
_Podacanthus wilkinsoni_ (Macleay).
1. Male.
2. Female.
3. Immature male.
4. Showing structure of hind legs of immature male.
5. Egg (enlarged).]
[Illustration: _Plate V.--ORTHOPTERA._]
They in the matter of colouration also adapt themselves to their
surroundings, and are usually green or brown when at rest, though when
the wings are expanded they exhibit some brilliant tints. In some
groups the species are winged in both sexes; others have only winged
males; and one group is wingless in both sexes, the latter generally
long, slender, and stick-like.
This family contains some of the giants of the insect world; specimens
of several of our Australian species measure 12 inches in length; while
supposed closely allied fossil forms unearthed in the Carboniferous
deposits of Europe measure up to 19 inches and were supplied with
immense wings. The female while crawling about among the foliage drops
her eggs singly on the ground beneath, where, protected in their hard
shells among the litter, they sometimes remain over a year before the
baby phasma comes out. The remarkable form and texture of these hard
oval egg cases has attracted the attention of entomologists in many
countries, and Sharp has figured and described some from New Britain.
Just as the Mantis has adapted its colour and shape to catch its prey,
so the phasma to protect itself from its many enemies has evolved
wonderful leaf-like processes upon the wings and legs, agreeing in
style with the surrounding foliage. It is noticeable that the larger
bodied female is often more leaf-like than her slender mate, probably
because more helpless; this is particularly so in the gravid or
egg-laying condition.
G. R. Gray described a number of our species in the Transactions of the
Entomological Society 1836, and others in the “Entomology of Australian
Phasmidae” 1833, and later in his “Synopsis Phasmidae”; Westwood in
his “Catalogue of the Orthopterous Insects in the British Museum” 1859
describes some; a few have been described by Macleay, Leach, McCoy and
Rainbow, bringing our list up to about 60 species. In Kirby’s Catalogue
95 species are listed from all parts of the world, but no additions are
made to our list.
The members of the Genus _Bacillus_ are slender, wingless, stick-like
creatures of which 5 species are recorded from Australia. The Great
Brown Phasma, _Acrophylla titan_, is the type of one of our groups,
containing 11 species described from this country. The female measures
8 inches to the tip of the body, and is slightly broader across the
outspread wings; the general form of head and thorax to base of tegmina
is slender; the abdomen is thickened; the legs and mesothorax are
spiny. The general colour is greyish brown; the tegmina light brown,
but thickly blotched with blue-black so that it is often more black
than brown; the wings are very large with the costal area broad and
similar in colour to the tegmina, but shaded with red at base, the
hind membranous part of them light chocolate irregularly mottled with
dull greyish brown. The male is more slender in form, about an inch
shorter, the smaller tegmina mottled with greenish yellow; the front
of the wings, which are proportionately small, are of the same colour,
and the hind portion dark chocolate finely mottled with light brown.
This large stick-insect used to be common about Sydney before the scrub
was cleared away, and ranges northward up the coast. Gray says: “It is
found on low scrubs about Port Jackson where the inhabitants call it
“Walking Straw” or the “Animated Stick.”
[Illustration:
=Fig. 19.=--Group of Gregarious Phasmids, _Podacanthus
wilkinsoni_ (Macleay) resting upon denuded eucalyptus
foliage.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
The Genus _Podacanthus_ is represented by 3 fine species. The large
pink winged phasma, _P. typhon_, has a wide range from Victoria to
Queensland. When resting with closed wings it is of a uniform rich
green tint, but when the wings are opened out, the upper surface of the
abdomen and the wings behind the frontal stripe are bright rose red.
The female measures 5 inches to the tip of the body and over 7 inches
across the outspread wings. In this genus the mesothorax is short, the
dorsal surface covered with short spined bosses and the metathorax
swelling out into a thickened body tapering to the large boat shaped
ovipositor. The male is smaller and much more slender.
_P. wilkinsoni_ is a gregarious species, appearing in the summer in
the New England forests in countless thousands, stripping every leaf
off the eucalyptus bushes as they travel along to the south-east, so
that all the trees look as if they had been killed by ringbarking, from
which habit they have received the name of “Lourie’s Ringbarkers,”
Mr. Lourie being the owner of Noundoc Station, where they are very
numerous. The female measures about 3½ inches to the tip of the body,
which is broad and thickset from the shoulders, of a general uniform
bright green tint on the dorsal surface, with the ventral somewhat
blackened and roughened. When the wings are expanded the front margin
shows the basal part pale orange yellow, and the membranous part behind
varying from rich rose red to pink. The male is a more slender insect
of a dull olive green tint, about the same length, with the broad wings
delicate purple. They appear with well developed wings about New Year,
and are depositing their eggs toward the end of February, the first
frost killing the last of them off.
_Didymuria violescens_ was described and figured in Leach’s “Zoological
Miscellanies 1815” as our typical Australian Phasma; Gray again figured
it in colours in his “Entomology of Australia” under the name of the
“Violet-winged tailed Spectre.” It is a slender species not unlike the
last, of a brownish yellow colour, with wings of a deep violet almost
red tint; and it has 3 large spines on the thighs of the hind legs.
The Genus _Tropidoderus_ contains four species according to the latest
catalogue, though there is some doubt whether one or two should not be
defined as only varieties of _T. childreni_ described by Gray.
_T. rhodomus_ is figured and described by McCoy; it measures 6 inches
in length and 9 across the outspread wings. With closed wings it is
a rich green, but when they are expanded, the basal portion of the
wings is bright red, with the apical portion green, and the rest
semitransparent. The tegmina is short, leaf-like, green above, but
shaded with red on the under-surface. This is one of the short-necked
broad-bodied forms, and while the fore-legs are long and slender, the
thighs of the mid and hind pair are dilated into flattened leaf-like
forms; it is found, clinging among the foliage of the gum trees, from
Victoria to Queensland. The typical _T. childreni_ differs from this
form in having the basal portion of the apical area of the wings yellow
instead of red, and the hyaline wings tinged with yellow. McCoy has
figured another under the name of _T. iodomus_: and Rainbow a fourth
from the neighbourhood of Sydney under the name of _T. decipiens_ which
also comes very close to the typical species; it has the basal portion
of the apical area of the wings purple.
[Illustration:
=Fig. 20.=--The Spiny Green Leaf Insect. _Extatosoma
tiaratum_ (Macleay).
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
_Extatosoma tiaratum_ is remarkable for the great difference in
the sexes; the male is a rare insect, about 4 inches long; is a dull
dark green, with small tegmina; the wings are large, rounded at the
tip, the apical margin green with the rest semiopaque, dark brown,
mottled with whitish bands; the head is conical, coming to a point at
the summit and cleft in the centre, covered with fine tubercles.
The female measures about 5 inches, is of a similar colour, large and
swollen in proportion; the tegmina are represented by two flaps, and
the wings are wanting. The head is of the same conical shape as that
of the male, but larger; neck short and stout; the legs produced into
dilated spiny leaf-like processes, cut out and arcuate like the leaves
of holly; and the lower segments of the abdomen are fringed with spiny
leaf-like appendages. Often the large body is mottled with white specks
and smutty blotches, giving it a wonderful resemblance to the foliage
among which it hides. It has a very wide range from Tasmania to New
Guinea.
[Illustration:
=Fig. 21.=--A group of Spiny Green Leaf Insects,
_Extatosoma tiaratum_ placed on a Japanese Holly bush to
show protective mimicry.
(“Agricultural Gazette” N.S.W.)]
_Clemacantha regale_ is a large, handsome, very long phasma over
9 inches in length, of a combined yellow and green tint; the head is
striped with parallel green and pale yellow. The leaf-like tegmina are
striped with white; wings have the apical area green shaded with pink
at base; rest semitransparent with a blue tint. It ranges from N.S.
Wales to Queensland.
Family 8. Short-horned Grasshoppers.
ACRIDIIDAE.
These are insects with the thighs of the hind legs swollen or enlarged,
much longer than the fore legs, and adapted for jumping. The tarsi
are composed of three distinct segments. The antennae are short,
containing less than 30 joints; the ovipositor of the females is not
sabre-shaped, but composed of short plates adapted for boring into the
ground; and the organs representing ears are placed on the sides of the
first abdominal segment. This group of the Orthoptera may be described
as the short-horned locusts or grasshoppers in contradistinction to
the tree or grass dwelling green grasshoppers with long thread-like
antennae. All the true plague locusts that ravage many of the warmer
countries and do an immense amount of damage belong to this division.
Many species have a wide range; our locusts are allied to the African
and Indian forms. Most of the species are winged, and many are capable
of long sustained flight; these are furnished with air sacs in the
interior of the thorax and abdomen; these when distended with air
assist in lightening the otherwise heavy body. The remarkable shrill
notes produced by some of these insects are caused by rubbing the inner
edge of the hind thigh against the outer surface of the wing covers
which are frequently furnished with ridges or raised veins for this
purpose. The so-called ears consist of a membrane covering a small
opening on the abdomen, and are of a somewhat different structure in
different groups.
[Illustration: =Fig. 22.=--Diagram of Grasshopper.
_Cyrtacanthacris exacta_ (♀) (Walker).
_ant_, antennae; _e_, eye; _vert_, vertex;
_oc_, ocellus; _fast_, fastigium; _c. fac_,
costae facialis; _c_, clypeus; _m_, mandible;
_l_, labrum; _mp_, maxilliary palpi; _lp_,
labial palpi; _ps_, prosternal spine; _p_,
pronotum; _m. epis_, meso-episternum; _m. epim_,
meso-epimeron; _co_, coxa; _tr_, trochanter;
_meta-epis_, meta-episternum; _meta-epim_,
meta-epimeron; _fem_, femur; _tib_, tibia;
_tar_, tarsus; _sp_, spiracle; _v_, ventral
valves of ovipositor. (Original W. B. Gurney.)]
The reproductive organs of the female consist of several anal plates
that are used after the manner of an auger to cut a circular pit in the
hard soil, the abdominal segments being extended while the operation is
going on; the eggs are deposited at the bottom of the hole, enclosed
in a similar exudation as that which encloses the eggs of the mantis,
and some of the plague locusts deposit two or more egg masses before
they die. These grasshoppers have been studied by many entomologists,
who have subdivided them into different groups. Brunner von Wattenwyl
places them under nine sub-families or tribes chiefly based on the
structure of the head. Saussure has described some of our species;
Walker, Stoll and Blanchard others.
[Illustration: =Fig. 23.=--_Locusta danica_ (Linn.)
The Yellow-winged Locust.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
The Yellow-winged Locust, _Locusta danica_, is common in open forest
country all over Australia, and usually makes a rustling noise as it
flies up; it is too well known to need describing; with its wings
closed it is a mottled, dull brown and green insect up to 2 inches in
length, with a short broad head and crested thorax; when the wings
are opened it shows a large patch of rich yellow banded with black.
The male is often fully a third smaller than the female. It has
been described under a great number of different names, but is now
considered the same insect as found in the South of Europe, Africa and
Asia.
The Blue Mountain Locust, _Oedaleus senegalensis_, might easily be
mistaken for a smaller dull coloured specimen of the last one, but
the yellow tint, when present, is very slight, and the wings have
the tips blackened as well as the inner band. It has a wide range
over Australia, and is also found in Africa from which place it was
described by Krauss.
[Illustration:
=Fig. 24.=--_Chortoicetes pusilla_ (Walker). The
small Plague-locust of the interior of Australia.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
[Illustration:
=Fig. 25.=--_Chortoicetes terminifera_ (Walker).
The larger Plague-locust.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
The Large Coast Locust, _Acridium maculicollis_, is sometimes found in
gardens; it measures 3 inches to the tip of the wings, and is greyish
brown with darkly mottled elytra. _Locusta australis_ is like the
Yellow-winged Locust, with more regularly mottled elytra, and clear
transparent wings. The small plain Locust, _Chortoicetes pusilla_, is
under 1 inch in length; the male is of a general bright yellow colour,
and the female, somewhat larger, of a general greyish brown tint. It is
the species that for the last few years has done so much damage to our
grass and crops in the Western country. _C. terminifera_ is one-third
larger, and is of a general light brown mottled colour, with the wings
semitransparent, tipped with dull brown; it at times is one of our
plague locusts. The Rose-winged Locust, _Hyalopteryx australis_, is one
of our small but very noisy locusts, about 8 lines in length; when at
rest it is light brown mottled with darker tints, the expanded hind
wings are brightly shaded with rose pink and clouded with black. It is
found in open grass lands, and when disturbed rises with a very shrill
screech. The Red-legged Locust, _Cirphula pyrocnemis_, is a short broad
insect about 1 inch long; is of a general dark brown tint, with the
expanded wings dark yellowish brown: the head and thorax are roughened;
the abdominal segments are dull yellow with several black bands on
the sides: it is common on the open flats about Sydney in summer. The
common “Great Striped Locust,” _Cyrtacanthacris exacta_, measures
nearly 3 inches; it ranges all along the Eastern coast and is often
seen in secluded gardens; it has a broad dorsal stripe down the centre,
varying from yellow to dull green.
[Illustration: =Fig. 26.=--_Cirphula pyrocnemis_
(Stäl). The Red-legged Locust.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 27.
Fig. 28.
=Figs. 27= and =28=.--Australian Grasshoppers.
27.--_Tryxalis rafflesii_ (Blanchard). The Slender
Narrow-headed Grasshopper.
28.--_Goniæa australasiae_ (Leach). The Ridge-backed
Grasshopper.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
The Long-nosed Locust, _Tryxalis rafflesii_, is very common in open
grassed flats; the female is nearly 3 inches long, with a slender
pointed head, and long pointed body, varying from all shades of
grass green to pale salmon colour. It is easily recognised by its
curious finger-like antennae, and grotesque head. The male is a very
slender, much smaller insect. The pink-winged Tryxalid, _Atrastemorpha
crenaticeps_, is much smaller; it has a pointed head of a uniform pale
green tint; the wings are brightly tinted with red, deepest at the
shoulders. The Ridge-backed Grasshopper, _Goniaea australasiae_, is a
large, stout, reddish brown insect about 2 inches long, which lives on
the hills in open forest; the male is a much smaller hopper, but both
sexes have the head, thorax, and closed wings forming a sharp ridge
down the back. In similar open forest country we find _Coryphistes
cyanopterus_, which usually rests on the tree trunks, with its slightly
roughened head, thorax, and mottled elytra closely resembling the bark.
It measures 2½ inches in length, but though it is very variable in size
and outward colouration, the wings when expanded always show a rich
blue tint. The Crested Locust, _Ecphantus quadrilobis_, is one of our
western forms that rests among the dry grass on the plains; it is dull
green to yellow, short and thickset; is 1½ inches long; with the back
ridged, and the crested thorax formed into 4 lobes. The spotted locust,
_Stropis maculosa_, is another of our western forms; it is broad and
thickset; about 2 inches long; of a uniform dark brown tint, with
the thorax barred, and the elytra mottled with large patches of light
yellow.
[Illustration:
=Fig. 29.=--_Coryphistes cyanopterus_
(Charpentier). The Blue-winged Locust.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
[Illustration:
=Fig. 30.=--_Stropis maculosa_ (Stäl). The Spotted
Ground-locust of the interior.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
There are also many other curious forms of wingless, short-horned
locusts in the interior, belonging to several genera, and probably some
fine things that have never reached our museums.
Family 9. Long-horned Grasshoppers.
LOCUSTIDAE.
These grasshoppers are found not only among the grass but on low
shrubs, or in tree tops, feeding upon the foliage; while others, many
of them wingless, live underground after the manner of crickets. Among
those that frequent trees are some that, like the phasmids, have the
legs and wing-covers so wonderfully veined and spotted that they
are an exact imitation of the leaves of their food plant. They are
easily distinguished from the previous group by their long, slender,
thread-like antennae composed of a number of fine joints; in most cases
the body is softer; and in the female furnished with a sabre-like
ovipositor with which she generally deposits her eggs in rows along the
side of a leaf or twig, though others place them on the ground. The
basal portion of the thigh of the hind leg is generally thickest, and
most of the species have four jointed tarsi, with the ear process not
upon the base of the abdomen, but on the knees of the fore-legs. Some
are said to be carnivorous, and I have twice seen a large green species
which comes to the flowers of the stunted angophora devouring honey
bees, but probably more for the honey they contain than the blood of
the bee.
Brunner von Wattenwyl has written a great deal about these insects
and described a number of Australian species. Tepper is one of the
few Australian entomologists who has taken up this group, describing
some in the Transactions of the Royal Society of S. Australia: in the
Locustidae of the world Sharp groups them into fifteen tribes. Most of
these Orthoptera are solitary or found in pairs; some too have a very
musical note.