Order II — Orthoptera. — Cockroaches, Grasshoppers, Termites, &c.
The members of this order are known as straight winged insects, because the narrow membranous fore wings (elytra) are usually laid flat along the sides of the body, covering the fan-shaped hind wings that are folded up beneath them. In some of the families we find groups or individuals with the wings rudimentary or so modified in structure as to be useless for flight, and in a few the perfect insects of one or both sexes are wingless. In some, like the typical grasshoppers, the hind legs have the thighs greatly developed and adapted for springing or jumping; in the Mantids the two hind pairs of legs are simple, but the front pair are produced into curved, spined tibiae and femora, weapons well adapted to capture their prey. The mouth parts are composed of a rounded upper lip, with two stout mandibles, and a pair of jaws to which are attached jointed appendages (maxillary palpi), the labrum or hind lip bearing similar appendages called the labial palpi; besides these they have a stout spade-shaped tongue, so that they both bite off and chew up their food.
Though the majority are vegetarian in their habits, one group, the mantids, are carnivorous, and in these insects the mouth parts are produced into a sharp point to the tip of the jaws.
They emerge from the eggs that are deposited singly or in masses in or upon the ground or attached to the twigs of their food plant; as baby insects they are much like the adult, undergoing a series of moults without any true pupal stage, until in the last moult they emerge with fully developed wings and reproductive organs.
The Orthoptera comprise a number of very different looking insects, among them some giants of the insect world like the stick and leaf insects. I have placed the earwigs, cockroaches, termites, embids, book lice, grasshoppers, crickets, mantis and phasmids together, though there is some difference of opinion among entomologists as to the exact position of the termites, embids, and book lice. The latest list of the Orthoptera is W. F. Kirby’s “Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera, vol. I.,” containing all the named species of the Forficulidae, Hemimeridae, Blattidae, Mantidae, and Phasmidae. This work was published by the Trustees of the British Museum, 1904: a second volume (not yet published) dealing with the locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets will complete this work. The latter were catalogued by F. Walker 1869–1870 in five parts, (Catalogue of the Specimens of Dermaptera, Saltatoria, and Supplement to the Blattariae in the British Museum), which this work of Kirby’s when finished will supersede.
Among the chief specialists on Orthoptera may be mentioned Henri de Saussure, who besides his monographs in the “Biologia Centrali-Americana,” has published many papers in scientific journals, of which the most important (containing descriptions of Australian species) is his “Melanger Orthopterologiques” in the Memoirs de la Societe de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Geneve 1863–4, and in subsequent volumes. Brunner von Wattenwyl has described other Australian species in different German publications, and in 1893 published his “Révision des Système des Orthoptères” in the Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova.
Kirby described other of our species chiefly in papers contributed to the “Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” and the Transactions of the Zoological and Entomological Societies.
Family 1. Earwigs — Forficulidae
These insects are slender in form, with somewhat rounded heads bearing two large facetted eyes, but no ocelli; and long slender antennae composed of short oval joints. The elytra, very short, usually not extending beyond the hind margin of the thorax, cover the hind wings when at rest. These hind wings are short but broad, somewhat resembling a human ear when expanded for flight, but neatly folded up beneath the abbreviated elytra at other times. In many groups however both elytra and wings are absent, the insects trusting to their legs and powers of burrowing to get out of danger, and even those with well developed wings seldom use them. The thorax is narrow; the legs stout, well adapted both for digging and running; and the abdomen, tapering to the extremity, terminates in a pair of callipers or pincer-like processes, sometimes curved and toothed into remarkable shapes. It is the possession of these curious anal appendages that has led to the earwig being popularly credited with all kinds of evil propensities; but though they certainly look very formidable they can only give one’s finger a harmless pinch if handled carelessly, and are otherwise perfectly harmless.
Earwigs are met with chiefly in damp situations; some of the smaller ones can be collected by pulling the rotten bark off dead trees; others are to be found under stones or logs; and in summer time many will be found in burrows in the damp sand on the water’s edge after the manner of mole crickets. In point of numbers this is not a large family, only about 520 species being described from all parts of the world; and only about 20 from Australia, so that they are poorly represented in this country.
The Genus Labidura contains 15 described species from all parts of the world; Labidura riparia, a cosmopolitan species ranging from Europe to Asia and Africa does not reach Australia; but we have a typical species in Labidura truncata, which has similar habits, living in burrows in the sand along the edges of lagoons and creeks. It measures an inch in length, and is of a general reddish brown tint mottled with dull yellow; and the dorsal segments of the abdomen are deeply barred with reddish black almost confluent down the centre. The head is large; the prothorax small, with the elytra and wings well developed; the abdomen, rather narrow at the base, is broadest behind the large callipers, which are slender, furnished with two blunt teeth on the inner edge and meet at the extremities. It differs from L. ripara in having the apical edge of the last abdominal segment truncate, and not scalloped as in the former.
The next large Genus Anisolabis is also world wide in its range and contains 36 described species, 3 of which are recorded from Australia, 2 from Tasmania, 1 from New Zealand, and 1 from Norfolk Island. Anisolabis colossea, our largest common wingless species, also recorded from New Caledonia, was described by Dohrn (Ann. Museo Genov. 1879), and a second variety by Burr under the name of A. minor in 1902; but it is most variable in size, ranging from over 1½ inches in length to less than half an inch. It is of a uniform dull reddish brown colour, with a rounded head, truncate thorax, and elongate broad abdomen terminating in a pair of short stout finger-like appendages fitting close together and turned up slightly at the tips.
A second species of Anisolabis common in Tasmania and recorded from the top of Mount Wellington is black, somewhat broad and flattened on the dorsal surface, with the anal appendages short, slender, and twisted over to the left side as if they had been damaged. It was described by Bormans (C.R. Soc. Ent. Belg. 1880) under the name of Anisolabis tasmanica.
Labia grandis described by Dubrony (Ann. Museo Genov. 1879) comes from North Australia. The genus contains 47 described species; several undetermined species in my collection are small dark brown earwigs with well developed elytra, and anal appendages very narrow at the base, small, and curving over at the sharp tips.
Family Blattidae.
1. Blatta orientalis ♂ (Linn.).
2. Blatta orientalis ♀ (Linn.).
3. Blatta orientalis Larva (Linn.).
4. Polyzosteria limbata (Burm.).
5. Periplaneta australasiae (Fabr.).
6. Geoscapheus giganteus (Tepper).
7. Panesthia laevicollis (Sauss.).
8. Periplaneta americana (Linn.).
9. Phyllodromia germanica (Linn.).
10. Periplaneta americana (Linn.).
Apterygida arachidis, a cosmopolitan species recorded from all parts of the world, is found in Australia; and the common European typical species, Forficula auricularia, which is widely distributed over the old world and America, is not recorded from Australia in Kirby’s Catalogue, but I have specimens in my collection given me by Mr. J. J. Walker taken in New Zealand, who told me he had also captured it in Tasmania, so that it is more than probable it will be found on the mainland.
Family 2. Cockroaches — Blattidae
The typical cockroach is a shield-shaped insect, with stout horny plates covering both the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the thorax and abdomen. The head, tucked under and hidden, when viewed from above by the rim of the prothorax, is furnished with two large compound eyes placed well in front; in some groups there are also two ocelli; the antennae springing from below the eyes are very long and slender, composed of a great number of short ringed segments. The jaws are well adapted for their vegetarian habits, though some among the domestic species are almost omnivorous in their tastes. Tepper considers that several species destroy the grubs and caterpillars of injurious cut-worms, but this wants further confirmation. Their legs are long and stout, covered with spines, and in the species living under stones and logs the legs are usually thickened. Many species are provided with two pairs of stout membranous wings, while the front pair (elytra) are thickened, opaque and coarsely veined; the hind wings, though frequently small, are fan-shaped, membranous and well adapted for flight.
The cockroach is one of the most ancient of insects, and roaches are common in fossil beds both in Europe and America, many of them allied to our still existing forms.
The female has a curious habit of carrying her keeled egg capsule protruding from her abdomen for some time before she deposits it in a suitable situation.
A number of cosmopolitan species might be called domestic insects as they are only found about houses or the haunts of man; in London Blatta orientalis is commonly known as the “black beetle,” swarming in cellars and kitchens. In Sydney the large yellow roach that comes flying round the room to the light is Periplaneta americana, an introduction from America, which has almost driven the smaller indigenous Periplaneta australasiae out of our houses; while in some of the southern and eastern States of America our Australian roach has been introduced and become the common domestic pest. The little German Roach, or “Croten Bug” of America, Phyllodromia germanica, is sometimes found about the Sydney wharves. Many of these bush and household roaches are provided with glands at the tip of the abdomen, from which they can discharge (when disturbed) a foetid odour as a means of defence. The cockroaches are a very extensive family; Marlatt estimates that at least 5,000 occur all over the world; about 212 species are given by Kirby (Catalogue Orthoptera vol. I. British Museum 1904) as Australian. Most of our typical forms are wingless, and live under rotten logs or stones; some of the largest species are to be found in the dry interior.
Saussure has described a number of our species (Mem. Soc. Geneve 1863–4–9): Walker many others, (Brit. Mus. Catalogue Blattidae 1868): and Tepper has been a constant worker at this group in South Australia for some years; descriptions of most of his species will be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society of S. Australia between 1893–95, and the Zoology of the Horn Expedition 1896.
The Genus Panesthia contains 44 described species ranging from India to Australia, of which 7 are peculiar to this country.
Panesthia laevicollis is common in forest land, where it is found burrowing in damp rotting logs. It is a wingless black insect, measuring nearly 1½ inches in length, with the thorax narrow and flattened above the head, the latter furnished with comparatively short antennae; the legs short but very spiny; and the dorsal surface of the abdomen covered with irregular punctures.
Cosmozosteria coolgardiensis is a very distinctive, wingless, dull yellow species broadly marked with black on the thoracic segments, and finely barred with the same colour on the upper edges of the abdominal segments. It measures about 1¼ inches in length, and ranges from South Australia to the central parts of Western Australia.
Polyzosteria limbata is a large dark brown cockroach margined on the outer edge of the dorsal plates with yellow; it is common in the vicinity of Sydney, and may be often noticed in the neighbourhood of Botany resting on stumps and fences; it has the habit, like several other species, of discharging a most offensive liquid when disturbed. Polyzosteria pubescens is an allied but much larger insect, measures up to 2 inches in length and 1½ inch in breadth; it is of a uniform dull brown tint, and is common about Kalgoorlie W.A., and will be probably found to range over a large portion of the interior.
Polyzosteria mitchellii is a variegated, dull metallic green cockroach ranging over the same country, but not more than 1½ inches in length. It has the upper surface margined on the edges with yellow, and is mottled on the legs and under-surface.
Geoscapheus giganteus is our giant cockroach, measuring 2½ inches in length and 1½ across the middle of the body. Like the last three it is wingless, with the large prothoracic shield overlapping the head. In colour it is bright reddish brown, crenulated and very rugose in the centre of the dorsal surface. In the same year (1895) that Tepper obtained this fine species, Saussure described another large roach under the name of Macropanesthia rhinoceros, forming a new genus for its reception and adding a second species which he named M. muelleri.
Family 3. White Ants — Termitidae
The exact position of these insects in every scheme of classification has been more or less vague, and while some writers place them in the Orthoptera, more include them in the Neuroptera; others again to get over the difficulty have formed a halting ground between the two and called them Pseudo-Neuroptera. In the “Genera Insectorum,” Desneux has followed Brullé and Comstock and placed them in a distinct order as Isoptera. Grassi, one of the greatest living authorities on the anatomy of insects, considers they are allied to the Neuroptera: but taking the broad ground of outward structure upon which the Orders were formed, and comparing the perfect termites, especially my giant species from North Australia, Mastotermes darwiniensis, with other families, I consider they are closely allied to the cockroaches, and therefore place them here. Take the wing away from some of the larger species and they have a striking resemblance to earwigs, and one of our greatest authorities on the family (Hagen) actually described a damaged earwig from Japan as a termite.
Termites are widely distributed over all the warmer regions of the world, though most numerous in tropical countries; and a number of fossil species have been described from Europe and America.
When Hagen’s “Monograph of the Termitidae” was published in 1858, only seven species were recorded from Australia and Tasmania, and one or two of these are very doubtful. In my “Australian Termitidae” (Pro. Linn. Soc. 1896–1897) the number was brought up to 35, and there are probably many more to be discovered, so that the family is very well represented in this country. Our species have been subdivided into nine genera placed in six sub-families, which are chiefly formed on the wing structure.
Broadly speaking their habits are very similar, and each nest or community consists of the same castes. First in order come the dark brown perfect winged male and female insects, only found in the regular nests in the early summer months; for soon after their wings are developed, the workers cut openings in the clay walls of the nest, and they fly out in a continuous stream, generally just before sunset, and when all have left the workers again close up the openings for another year. In the winged state they are known as “flying ants,” and on a warm summer night sometimes come in such numbers round the lights, dropping their easily detached wings all over the table, that they are a regular nuisance.
These perfect termites have well developed eyes; slender antennae composed of short, rounded, bead-like joints standing out in front of the rounded flattened head; and a short stout thorax fitting close against the elongate rounded abdomen. They are furnished with two pairs of similar, elongated, narrow wings of uniform width rounded at the tips, with primitive parallel neuration; these are loosely attached to the basal wing-flap by a cross suture, where they readily tear them across; when at rest they are laid flat over each other down the back, extending well beyond the tip of the body: the legs are short and stout.
Their flight is feeble, and of the millions that swarm out and flutter away from the nest, probably not more than halfa-dozen couples are fortunate enough to get into a suitable place to found a fresh colony.
1. Male (wings closed).
2. Male (wings expanded).
3. Worker.
4. Nymph.
5. Soldier.
The next caste, that form the bulk of the life of the nest, are the workers, delicate soft white creatures with pale yellow, rounded, flattened heads; blind, but furnished with slender antennae; and a pair of short stout toothed jaws hidden by the labrum, and which in the course of their labours do such immense damage to all kinds of both native and imported timber. The third caste, also always present, are the soldiers, that simply act as guards for the whole nest, leaving all the work of building, feeding the young, and gathering supplies to the workers. In the fourth we have the Queen, which was originally one of the winged forms; after casting her wings she is impregnated, and while the head, thorax and appendages remain as before, the abdomen swells into a white cylindrical sack as thick as one’s little finger; the chitinous plates that once fitted close together are now widely separated and appear as narrow black bands. She is simply a mass of egg tubes; and, looked after and fed by the attendant workers, she devotes her life to laying eggs, which, like grains of sugar, are carried away and piled up by the workers in adjacent chambers under the nursery. From these eggs develop tiny white specks of matter that gradually develop by a regular series of moults into workers, soldiers, and immature winged forms; the latter have large rounded bodies and rounded wing pads representing the future wings. Supplementary Queens are sometimes found that have never gone through the winged stage; they have the general structure and large corrugated bodies of the mature queens. The typical white ants’ nest, known as a Termitarium, usually consists in the first instance of a mass of woody laminated material that might be likened to papier-mache, originally a stump or portion of a log that has been chewed up and voided in the form of a mortar-like substance. This termitarium is full of irregular galleries running like a network all through the mass, with the means of exit running out under the nest; a mass of stout terraced structure above the ground level surrounds the Royal Chambers, which might be likened in size and shape to an inverted saucer, from which the enclosed Queen cannot escape, but the attendant workers can pass to and fro. Above this is a rounded oval mass often as big as a child’s head, which resembles stiff brown paper folded round and round, full of fine openings, and is easily crumbled up; this, for want of a better word, I call the nursery, as it contains all the minute larvae as they emerge from the eggs. The formation above the nursery is more irregular, and terminates in a rounded cap. The whole of this woody structure is covered with a stout enveloping wall of fine clay, which, carried up grain by grain, has been cemented together into a firm earthy wall in contact with the woody structure at the base of the nest, but often with a cavity at the apex.
The nests of the Eutermes are sometimes built over stumps, but more often on the branches or trunks of trees, where they form rounded or oval masses a foot or two in diameter, with covered galleries leading down to the ground. In these nests there is no distinct outer earthy sheath; when near the ground, earth and wood are blended together in a very compact mass, full of small galleries running at every angle, and have no distinct structure like the first group. When the nest is placed on a tree trunk or branch away from the ground it consists almost entirely of woody matter, and may be quite soft and papery beneath the outer crust. In the West Indies these nests are popularly known as “Negroheads.”
Other groups are never known to construct true nests, but form chambers and galleries under the bark of trees, in banks, or simply under logs and stones. Some in the interior are said to disappear underground from their nests in the dry summer time, returning with the first rains and mending up the dilapidated walls.
The members of the two genera Mastotermes and Calotermes have the wings much more thickly veined than the more simple Termes and Eutermes.
Mastotermes darwiniensis is the largest common species taken flying round the lights at night in North Queensland and Port Darwin. It is very dark brown, with thickly veined wings, and measures 1⅓ inches in length from the front of the head to the tip of the folded wings. Nothing is known of its nests or the other forms of this species. It is the sole representative of the sub-family. I have, through the observations of Mr. N. W. Christie of Port Darwin, good reasons for believing that Termes errabundus, described from the soldiers and workers only, is identical with this giant termite. He informs me that at Point Charles he finds the nests in every old post or stump in the wet season.
Calotermes longiceps is the common Sydney species of this group, of which we have six described from Australia, and one from New Zealand. The soldier measures ½ inch in length, with a long broad head armed with blackish projecting jaws, which are irregularly toothed on the inner edges. The Calotermes live in logs and trees in small communities; they form no regular nest; this species is found in logs of firewood about Sydney. In some species the soldiers are very rare, the community consisting of immature winged forms and workers.
Family Termitidae.
Termitarium of the Meridonial White Ant, Termes meridionalis
(Froggatt).
“The Magnetic Nest,” Palmerston, Port Darwin, N. Australia.
(Original photo. N. Holtz.)]
In the Rhinoterminae we have two species, differing from the former group in having the wings very finely wrinkled or reticulated; and also in having two distinct forms of soldiers, one much larger than the other, but both with pear shaped heads and pointed finely-toothed jaws. Rhinotermes intermedius is not uncommon in old stumps about Sydney; the winged forms are of a light reddish brown colour with delicate wings; both the workers and soldiers of the major type have large yellow heads, the latter armed with curved jaws; while the heads of the small form of soldiers are much more slender.
The typical Termitinae comprise nearly all the species that build regular mounds, containing countless thousands of individuals. Termes lacteus is the common species that does so much mischief to buildings about Sydney, and though not a mound builder about the city, yet from Colo Vale to Victoria and also northward it forms tall rounded nests up to six feet high and very regular in structure. The soldier is about ¼ inch long, with a bright, yellow, pear shaped head, and a pair of curved jaws; it also has an opening in the front of the head above the jaws from which it can discharge a globule of milk-like fluid when disturbed. This species with several allied forms has been placed in the genus Coptotermes. Termes meridionalis has a small soldier, almost white, with a rounded yellow head armed with two slender curved jaws, and an incurved tooth in the centre of the inner margin; it measures a little over ⅙ of an inch in length. It has a world wide reputation on account of building what is known as the “Magnetic Nest,” built like a brick wall and always pointing north and south, with the wall facing east and west. Jack (Pro. Royal Society, Queensland, 1897) considers that this is done by the termites always building towards the rising sun; so that, as they work at night, the clay will dry rapidly. They are found in several localities on Cape York and near Port Darwin. Several very distinct species are found in the interior. Termes perniger ranges from Kalgoorlie W.A. to Western Queensland; the soldier is a very dark coloured insect with a very large head furnished with large powerful toothed jaws, and is very savage. T. rubriceps is found in small colonies in Central Australia, forming their nests at the roots of the tussocks of spinifex grass. T. krisiformes, a species in which the soldier has slender irregular jaws like a Malay kris, makes tiny little mounds about Bulli N.S.W. or forms colonies under the shelter of a log.
The members of the genus Eutermes are common all over Australia; they construct hard woody nests seldom more than a foot or two high; though at the same time, the largest known termitarium is also built by one species, Eutermes pyriformis, pillar shaped and often 18 feet in height, probably in the first instance commenced over a dead tree trunk.
The soldiers are very curious looking creatures; the peculiar oval or rounded heads produced into an awl-like point in front, the centre being filled with a clear honey-like fluid; this is discharged down the projecting snout and smothers their enemies, because they have no true jaws above the mouth: most of them are much darker brown insects than the other termites. The two species, Eutermes fumigatus, the darker, smaller species, and E. fumipennis, the lighter tinted, are common in the vicinity of Sydney.
Family 4. Web-spinners — Embiidae
These rare and curious little chocolate brown creatures are elongate in form, not unlike a slender adult termite after it has shed its wings, and they form another group that has puzzled entomologists in regard to their classification. Only twenty species are known from all parts of the world; but from their affinities to prehistoric insects they have been carefully studied. Grassi worked at the life-history of a species found in Southern Europe under stones: Wood-Mason has figured and described Indian forms and placed them in the Orthoptera: Perkins says that the species in Hawaii is common on tree trunks where they conceal themselves under a fine web like spiders.
Family Termitidae.
Termitarium of the Great Mound-nest White Ant, Eutermes pyriformis (Froggatt).
Palmerston, Port Darwin, N. Australia.
(Original photo. N. Holtz.)
They measure up to about ½ an inch in length; are elongate in form with large globular heads, small toothed jaws, and long, slender antennae composed of 20 or more bead-shaped joints which they are constantly moving when they run about. The thorax is formed of three very elongated segments, so that each pair of legs is very wide apart; and in the winged forms the slender oar-shaped wings with very primitive nervures are so far from each other that they have quite a comical look; the abdomen is short, cylindrical, composed of 10 segments, rounded at the tip, with large anal appendages (cerci). The legs are curiously thickened, with the tarsi of the front pair shaped somewhat like a weaver’s shuttle. Until last year they were unknown in Australia, when I described two species (Proc. Linn. Soc. 1904); the first Oligotoma agilis, is a wingless form, of which I found two specimens while turning over granite boulders at Bomen near Wagga N.S.W. The second, Oligotoma gurneyi, was obtained by Mr. Gurney in a lighted room one evening in a suburb of Sydney; it had well developed wings. Soon afterwards Mr. Steel had his attention called to what one of the men in the Colonial Sugar Co.’s refinery at Pyrmont called a “white fungus” under one of the windows. This Mr. Steel found to be a mass of white web matted with excrement and full of slender brown insects, which he collected into a bottle and handed to me. Though most of them were mature, only a few showed regular wing pads, but otherwise they appear to be O. gurneyi; in captivity they spun a great quantity of delicate white web among which they hid, but when wet sugar was placed on the cork they ate it readily.
Family 5. Book Lice — Psocidae
These are very delicate little creatures that run about on moss grown fences, tree trunks, among foliage, or hide in boxes, old baskets and other litter. In some groups, while the larvae and pupae are wingless, the perfect insects have two pairs of delicate wings with curious curved transverse nervures and very few cross veins, so that the cells are few. In other groups the perfect insects are wingless, or if present, aborted and useless for flight. They are all furnished with long slender antennae consisting of from 11 to 25 joints; the head is large, rounded in front, with convex eyes, and three ocelli (wanting in the wingless forms).
They can be collected into a small tube on fences or tree trunks, or shaken into a net or umbrella; but they must be handled very gently, and are best placed in dry tubes, and killed and mounted at home. Many handsome species are found in Australia, and some probably have a wide distribution, as they are easily introduced into a new country with many kinds of produce. One dull winged species is very common on the foliage of the orange trees, where it lays its metallic green eggs in patches of 9 or 12 on the midrib of the leaf, covering them over with a delicate white silken sheet.
A number of species were obtained in Australia by the Hungarian entomologist L. Biro, collecting for the Royal Museum of Hungary, chiefly captured in the neighbourhood of Sydney. In 1903 Dr. Enderlein classified and described these (Die Copeognathen des Indo-Australischen Faunengebietes), published in the Annals of the above Museum, and illustrated with many fine drawings. In this monograph he divides the family into 16 sub-families, 39 genera and 115 species, 15 of which are described from Australia.
Philotarsus froggatti, a tiny creature 2⅓ millimetres in length, with clear wings, is found on the Blue Mountains.
Family 6. Mantids — Mantidae
We have no exact popular name for these peculiar insects; some of the bush children call them “Forest Ladies,” on account of the dainty form and graceful motion of several of our smaller species, which is rather appropriate; but unfortunately several lace-wings go under the same fanciful name. In the United States the common species are called “Rear Horses” from the way they stand at rest with raised fore legs. The Romans called them “Soothsayers;” and at least two species are known as “Praying Mantis,” namely Mantis religiosa in Europe, and Mantis carolina in the United States, from their pious attitudes.
They are most numerous in tropical countries, and are well represented in Australia; Westwood in his “Synopsis of the Species of Mantidae,” published in 1889, records 624 described species, only 30 of which come from this country. Kirby’s Catalogue (1904) brings the list up to about 843, and adds 5 more to our list of described species.
With the exception of some curious little neuroptera (Mantispa), 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.
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.
Family Phasmidae.
Podacanthus wilkinsoni (Macleay).
1. Male.
2. Female.
3. Immature male.
4. Showing structure of hind legs of immature male.
5. Egg (enlarged).
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Mountain Grasshopper, Acridopeza reticulata, is such a curious looking creature that it has been figured and noted by many naturalists. Both sexes are of a uniform dull brown colour, but very different in structure; the male measures 2 inches; has long pointed elytra, and well developed wings; the head is small; the antennae slender and thread-like; the eyes stand out on the side of the head, and the thorax is saddle shaped. The female is furnished with a very short, rounded body richly mottled with blue, white, and red, covered with a pair of rounded, short, shell-like elytra, but the wings are wanting. When disturbed she stands on tiptoes, arches her body, raises her elytra exposing all the bright tints of her body, which probably act as a warning to her enemies.
Family Locustidae.
1. Acridopeza reticulata (Guérin), ♀.
1a. Acridopeza reticulata (Guérin), ♂.
1b. Acridopeza reticulata (Guérin), eggs.
2. Alectoria superba (Brunner).
3. Ephippitytha 32-guttata (Serv.).
4. Pseudorhynchus lessonii (Serv.).
Another remarkable grasshopper is Alectoria superba, found in the dry western country among the grass; it is a long, slender, green insect, measuring 2½ inches; the elytra and legs are richly mottled with bright reddish brown; the thorax is produced into a large circular crest edged with bright red, a large boss below on either side, and another projecting above the head. The female has a very small lance-like ovipositor. The Speckled Green Grasshopper, Ephippitytha 32-guttata, is about the same length as the last, of a somewhat lighter green tint, and has the elytra mottled with a double row of black spots varying from 32 to 44 in number. The head is small, the thorax short and somewhat saddle-shaped. It is found about Sydney on flowering shrubs; and there is a darker variety which has a wide range over the interior, to which Tepper has given the name of E. quadrigesima-guttatus. The Small Green Grasshopper, Caedicia valida, is one of our dainty, slender, green species found in the gardens, where it sometimes damages the young fruit by gnawing patches off the skin, or nibbles holes in the foliage; it produces a sharp musical note uttered three times in succession.
The Large Green Leaf Grasshopper, Locusta vigentissima, figured by McCoy, is also found on low shrubs in the summer; it measures nearly 3 inches, and is of a uniform dull green colour, with the head, legs and antennae more or less yellow: the head is broad; the thorax stout; the legs long and spiny; the elytra long, tapering to the tips; the wings large, semitransparent; the abdomen short, in the female furnished with a long sabre-like ovipositor. The Lance-headed Grasshopper, Pseudorhynchus lessonii, has a wide range along the eastern coast among the long grass; it is green, with the tips of the elytra marked with yellow; the wings are small, and the front of the head produced into a lance-like point. Among the foliage of the eucalypts in Southern Australia there is a very handsome large grasshopper with the head small, the thorax very square, and the elytra very leaf-like in form; it has a curious bloom upon it like that upon many of the gum leaves, and is a very fine case of mimicry.
The Genus Anostosoma comprises a number of reddish brown wingless locusts more like crickets in many ways, for they live chiefly in holes in the ground, have long thread-like antennae, and stout spiny legs. Anostosoma australasiae is a very formidable looking insect with immense head and jaws, originally described from Moreton Bay; it is sometimes found about Sydney, measuring 3 inches in length; it has antennae over 4 inches long. The smaller species, Anostosoma erinaceus, is of a similar colour and form, but not more than 1½ inches in length; it is not uncommon in gardens.
Paragryllacris combusta lives in hiding during the day under a curled leaf spathe of a palm frond, or in a cavity in a tree trunk; if in the last it often forms a white tough substance of a net-like structure over the front, and if disturbed will snap at a grass blade or straw and shake the net, making a distinct sharp sound. It is of a uniform, yellowish brown tint, measuring about 2 inches to the tip of the large curled wings closely folded over the body.
The curious Cave Locust, Pachyrhamma sp., with its small oval body, and long slender antennae and hind legs, is always found in caves. It is a dull brown wingless creature, whose slender thread-like antennae are many times longer than the body.
Family 10. Crickets — Gryllidae
These are the black field and house crickets which are so well known by their shrill note; this is caused by the insect rubbing the stout wing covers or elytra together; those of the males have a distinct circular wavy neuration forming distinct ridges for this purpose.
Crickets are easily distinguished by their slender thread-like antennae, short rounded heads, black wings folded down the back, and spiny hind legs adapted both for creeping through the grass or jumping out of the road of their enemies. The abdomen is furnished with a pair of slender spined appendages on the sides, and the female with a stiletto-like ovipositor composed of two grooved pieces by which the eggs are deposited in the ground.
We have a number of field crickets in this country; Walker in his catalogue of the family gives 12 species, of which Gryllus servillei is our common field cricket, sometimes swarming out in sufficient numbers to do a great deal of damage to field crops and vegetable gardens. It is of a uniform black tint, with a short, shining, round head; it measures about 1 inch in length, and has a wide range over Australia. The Mole Cricket, Gryllotalpa coarctata, is found all over the interior, forming underground tunnels in the sand along the edges of watercourses; it was collected in the Horn Expedition in Central Australia, and is also found about Sydney. It is of the usual dull brown tint, with hooded thorax and spade-shaped fore-legs. Another curious little black cricket is common about the edges of watercourses, and when disturbed often jumps in and swims about on the surface; it belongs to the Genus Nemobius, and is only ⅙ of an inch in length.
Family Gryllidae.
1. Gryllus servillei (Sauss.).
1a. Gryllus servillei (Sauss.). (Elytron ♀.)
2. Gryllotalpa coarctata (Walk.).
3. Pachyrhamma sp.
4. Nemobius sp.
5. Paragryllacris combusta (Germ.).
6. Anostostoma erinaceus (Gray).]