Chapter IV: Introduction (2)

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.

=Fig. 14.=--Typical nest, of the Spinifex termite
(_Eutermes triodiae_) (Froggatt), about 14 feet high.
Hall’s Creek, Kimberley, W.A. (Original photo. Mansbridge.)]

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.)]

=Fig. 15.=--_Oligotoma gurneyi_ (Froggatt). The
web spinning embiid. With a diagram showing the primitive
structure of wing. (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.)]

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).

=Fig. 16.=--_Philotarsus froggatti_ (Enderlein). A
typical specimen of the Psocidae found near Sydney, N.S.W.
(Redrawn from Enderlein’s figure,--W.W.F.)]

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.

=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.

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.”

=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.

=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.

=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.

_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.

(“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.

=Fig. 24.=--_Chortoicetes pusilla_ (Walker). The
small Plague-locust of the interior of Australia.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

=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.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

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.

=Fig. 29.=--_Coryphistes cyanopterus_
(Charpentier). The Blue-winged Locust.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

=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.

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), ♀.
1_a_. _Acridopeza reticulata_ (Guérin), ♂.
1_b_. _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.).
1_a_. _Gryllus servillei_ (Sauss.). (Elytron ♀.)
2. _Gryllotalpa coarctata_ (Walk.).
3. _Pachyrhamma sp._
4. _Nemobius sp._
5. _Paragryllacris combusta_ (Germ.).
6. _Anostostoma erinaceus_ (Gray).]

Order III.--NEUROPTERA.

Lace-winged Insects.

After excising the families usually treated as _Pseudo-Neuroptera_ from this order, these insects can be defined as the “lace wings,” furnished with two pairs of delicate gauzy wings reticulated with a network of fine transverse and parallel veins forming a great number of more or less irregular cells. The head is furnished, with a few exceptions, with stout jaws adapted to their carnivorous habits; large eyes; and antennae of many different forms, sometimes short, thickened, or clubbed, but in others long, slender, and filiform. The legs, suited to their clinging habits when at rest, are generally slender, and the body more or less elongate.

Most of them undergo a complete metamorphosis; the active larvae are furnished with large sucking or biting jaws; in the terrestrial forms they live among foliage or on the ground, and feed upon aphids, mites, ants, &c., and when full grown pupate in regular cocoons. While some of the aquatic forms go through a pupal stage in cells in the mud or under stones, others, like the dragon flies, have no true pupal form, simply going through a series of moults, and changing from an aquatic life to an aerial one by crawling out of the water and emerging from the pupal case, leaving it attached to the water plant.

Sharp places the Neuroptera in eleven families, further divided up into a number of sub-families under five tribes. In excising the _Pseudo-Neuroptera_ seven families remain, though the _Hemerobiidae_ includes a number of sub-families that by some writers are ranked as families.

The Neuroptera are represented in Australia by many very handsome and curious insects, of which the dragon flies are probably the most typical and well known.

Family 1. Stone-flies.

PERLIDAE.

The Stone-flies are not an extensive group, and though the European and American forms have been studied, very little is known about our species. In England several species are much prized by fishermen as tempting bait for fly-fishing.

The perfect insects have oblong, flattened bodies of uniform width to the tip of the abdomen, terminating in a pair of long slender tails or setae. The head is long, provided with large prominent eyes, three ocelli, slender thread-like antennae, and weak mouth parts; the fore-wings are slightly longer than the hind ones, which are very broad and folded down the middle when closed. They are generally found about watercourses in early summer, and lay an immense number of eggs (5,000 to 6,000 some authorities state are laid by each female); these eggs are dropped on the surface of the water. The larvae are very like the perfect insects except that they have no wings; they are active carnivorous creatures living in the bottom of swift running streams, crawling under the stones, and feeding chiefly on the larvae of mayflies.

Only four or five species have been described from Australia; I had a number of specimens sent me from Hobart, Tasmania, the larvae of which were said to be damaging the woodwork down a well. It has been identified as _Eusthenia spectabilis_. This insect was named by Westwood, and is figured in Griffith’s “Animal Kingdom,” (page 348, plate 72). It measures about 2 inches across the outspread wings; its general colour is dark brown, with the fore wings lighter, mottled with brown at the base and the lower half dull red; the hind pair brighter red with the tips blackish. The head is flattened, with long slender many jointed antennae tapering to the tips. The thorax is slender, flattened on the upper surface; the legs stout; and the tip of the abdomen bears two slender jointed tails (setae). This insect is also found in Australia. A second species, _Eusthenia thalia_, is described from Tasmania by Newman; I have one from Gippsland Victoria probably a new species. Several species have been described by Walker (Brit. Mus. Catalogue, Neuroptera 1852) in the typical Genus _Perla_ from Tasmania.

Members of the Genus _Cupnia_ are often found upon the snow in Northern Europe.

Family ODONATA.

1. _Tramea loewii_ (Brauer).
2. _Synlestes weyersii_ (Selys).
3. _Ischnura delicata_ (Selys).
4. _Rhyothemis graphiptera_ (Ramb.).
5. _Orthetrum nigrifrons_ (Kirby).
6. _Diplacodes (Diplax) bipunctata_ (Brauer).

Family SIALIDAE.

7. _Chaulcodes guttatus_ (Walk.).

(Original photo. Burton.)]

Family 2. Dragon Flies.

ODONATA.

Everyone has noticed dragon flies that sail and dart about over swamps and rivers, the embodiment of grace and beauty in flying creatures. In England and Australia they are popularly known as “horse-stingers,” a very misleading name, for they cannot sting, and if they frequent the vicinity of horses it is for the sake of the flies or gnats they can capture. In America the country folk know them under the still more peculiar name of “Devil’s Darning Needles,” while the French children, who recognise their beauty and dainty form, call them “demoiselles.” Westwood places the dragon flies in the family _Libellulidae_; but both Kirby and Sharp call them _Odonata_; the former again divides them into the _Libellulidae_ and the _Agrionidae_, and the latter subdivides them into groups with the same characters, namely the _Anisopteridae_ and _Zygopteridae_.

The members of the first group are those with the hind pair of wings slightly larger than the front pair, and the second with wings of equal size or the hind pair smaller. Specialists have further subdivided them into seven smaller sub-families containing about 300 genera.

Dragon flies are widely distributed over the world, but are most plentiful in the warmer zones; about 2,000 have been described from all parts of the world, of which 107 species are recorded from Australia; but as Billinghurst was able to collect 41 species in one circumscribed district in Victoria (Victorian Naturalist No. 1, 1900), systematic collecting would certainly add many more to our list.

In the early stages of their life dragon flies are aquatic; the female deposits her eggs on the foliage of water plants, sometimes dipping into the water to be sure they are submerged. The slender larvae with wing pads in place of the future wings have somewhat the form of the adults, and are carnivorous, feeding upon all kinds of smaller water insects.

The dragon flies form a very distinct division of the Neuroptera; every organ is beautifully adapted for their aerial life, their immense eyes giving them an outlook on all sides, while the slender cylindrical body does not impede their flight; and the great oar-shaped wings strengthened with many stout nervures enable them to twist and turn in the air with wonderful ease and rapidity.

The LIBELLULIDAE are thick-bodied dragon flies of medium size, and comprise a number of fine species. The larvae are short broad creatures with wide heads; they live in the mud on the bottom of ponds. _Rhyothemus graphiptera_ belongs to a genus containing over 30 species ranging from Africa to China, and the Eastern Archipelago to the New Hebrides. It measures 2½ inches across the wings, which are yellowish brown, beautifully mottled with darker tints; the front pair are blotched at the base, a slender stripe in front running into the first of 2 irregular transverse bands about the centre and tip; in the hind pair the two apical bands have basal markings consisting of three small irregular blotches: it is found in the northern parts of N.S. Wales.

_a_, antenna; _ar_, arculus; _b.s_, basilar
space; _c_, costal nervure; _s.c_, sub-costal
nervure; _e_, eye; _f_, front; _m_, median
nervure (or radius); _s.m_, sub-median; _m.s_,
median sector; _m_, membranule; _n_, nodus;
_n.s_, nodal sector; _o_, occiput; _p_,
pterostigma; _p.s_, principal sector; _s.s_, short
sector; _s.t_, sector of triangle; _t_, triangle;
_i.a_, inferior appendage; _s.a_, superior;
_a.n_, antenodals. The numerals refer to the segments of
the abdomen. (Original R. J. Tillyard.)]

The Genus _Diplax_ contains a number of more delicate, short-winged insects, of which _Diplax rubra_, a typical form, is common both along the rivers and in the open scrub, often quite a distance from water. It is a moderate-sized dragon fly, tinted with pale yellow at the base of the hind wings, and has a distinctive bright red body. _Diplacodes (Diplax) bipunctata_ has much the same habits, and a wider range over the country; it is common about Sydney, and is slightly smaller than the previous species, and of a general yellow tint. _Orthetrum nigrifrons_ is a more thickset dragon fly about 2 inches across the wings; the head and front of thorax are black, with the hind portion of the latter and body deep blue; it is a very distinctive species along the watercourses and in the open bush. _Orthetrum villosovittatum_ is a slightly larger form found in Southern Queensland, with slightly clouded wings, blotched close to the body with yellowish brown: the head and thorax are brown, and the body is red.

* * * * *

The AESCHNIDAE contain the giants among the dragon flies: _Petalura gigantea_ is our largest species, and varies much in different localities; most of ours on the Blue Mountains measure about 5 inches across the wings, but Tillyard captured them at Cairns N.Q. 6½ inches. It is a very robust insect of a dull brown tint, with a single, broad, pale stripe on the sides of the large square thorax, and when viewed from the side seems to have the abdomen attached to the under-side of the thorax. The pterastigma of the wing is long.

_Hemianax papuensis_ is typical of one of our large species, often flying in numbers about Sydney hawking for gnats high up in the air before a storm. It measures 4 inches across the wings, which have a slight smoky tint.

_Aeschna brevistyla_ is about the same size as the previous species, but the wings are clear, and the abdominal segments are marked with two angulated white blotches, one on either side of the dorsal stripe. The larvae are curious, elongate, oval creatures, with large heads, living in the mud at the bottom of stagnant ponds and are common about Sydney.

* * * * *

The AGRIONIDAE are the delicate slender-bodied dragon flies with oar-shaped wings, and narrow heads with the eyes standing out on either side. _Lestes analis_ is our common type of the large genus; it is of the usual slender form, with the body nearly as long as the expanse of wings, and is of a general reddish brown colour. _Synlestes weyersii_ is a very beautiful slender creature nearly 3 inches across the wings, and over 2 inches from the front of the head to the tip of the body. It has transparent wings with an oval whitish pterastigma toward the tips, and the whole head and body is deep rich metallic green. It flies in a very graceful manner up and down the edges of the watercourses, resting every now and then on a reed or overhanging twig, and is very easily captured. _Ischnura heterosticta_ is our tiny, little, banded, blue and brown dragon fly, with the female of a more sombre brown tint: Tillyard has recorded two forms of females in this species, one taking on the garb of the bright-coloured male.

_Ischnura delicata_, very similar in size and form, has the basal two-thirds of the abdomen red and the apical portion blue. The larvae of both these species are common in the ponds about Sydney in the early summer. Tillyard (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1905) has recently added three new species of the Genus _Austrogomphus_ collected in the Cairns district N. Queensland.

Family 3. May-flies.

EPHEMERIDAE.

These delicate gauze-winged insects were named Ephemera from the old idea that their life as perfect insects lasted only for a day; they were born in the morning and died at the fall of day. Though their span of life is short, as they possess only rudimentary mouths incapable of absorbing food, and only live a short time after the eggs are laid, it is generally a matter of a few days.

They have large prominent eyes; three ocelli; and minute antennae consisting of two thickened joints surmounted with a needle-like hair or bristle: the prothorax is small, the middle portion large; and the somewhat small body, generally composed of ten segments, is provided with a slender articulated hair-like tail on either side. The wings are broadest at the base, rounded at the extremities, with the hind pair small, in some genera the hind pair absent. The larvae live in burrows in the mud at the bottom of ponds or watercourses, and when full grown climb up the stalks of grass or plants and cast their pupal coverings.

Most of our species are only found in odd pairs, and do not assemble in swarms as they sometimes do in England; but in 1885, in the Royal Geographical Society’s Exploring Expedition in New Guinea, when ascending the Fly River we met with great clouds of the large white Mayfly, _Palingenia papuana_, flying along over the surface of the water just as described by D’Albertis in his work on New Guinea; specimens I collected are now in the Australian Museum.

The commonest species about Sydney is _Atalophlebia australasica_, a small chocolate brown insect marked with black; the wings are vitreous with black markings on the veins, the front margin tinged with umber brown on the cross veins. It was described by Pictet in his “Natural History Neuroptera” (1843–45): Walker has described another from Tasmania: Eaton three more from different parts of the mainland: and Burmeister one in his “Handbook of Entomology” as far back as 1839. The members of this genus have a wide range from South America through Africa, Japan, and Ceylon. A single species of the Genus _Coloburiscus_ has been described from Melbourne.

The chief work on these insects is Eaton’s “Revisional Monograph of Recent Ephemeridae or May-flies,” Parts I.-V. (Transactions of the Linnean Society 1883–87;) in this work he subdivides them into three groups containing 55 genera and 270 species.

Family 4. Alder Flies and Snake Flies.

SIALIDAE:

This small division contains two groups that Westwood treated as two distinct families, the _Sialidae_ and the _Raphidae_; but Sharp points out, that in general structure and habits they are very closely related to each other,--the latter chiefly differing from the former in the remarkable elongation of the prothorax, and he thus only ranks them as sub-families.

The Alder Flies have two pairs of broad wings, wide at the base, the hind pair slightly smaller and capable of being folded behind; they are all traversed by numerous veins forming irregular cells. They are slow in their movements, and are to be found clinging to bushes in the vicinity of water. Our commonest species is the _Chauliodes guttatus_, described by Walker; it is a large, dull brown insect with an elongated thorax and body; the head is furnished with long, slender, annulated antennae, large prominent eyes on the sides, and three ocelli on the summit. The wings are semiopaque, the fore pair finely spotted with black, thickest on the front margin; the broader hind pair are only lightly spotted at the extreme tip, with from 4 to 5 larger rounded spots about the centre. It measures over 3 inches across the outspread wings, and 1¼ inches from the head to the tip of the abdomen; it has a wide range from Victoria to Queensland.

The larvae are remarkable for having fringed filaments on the sides of the abdomen; they crawl about in the mud or among the weeds in water-holes, and are carnivorous, feeding upon other aquatic insects; when ready to transform, the pupae come out of the water and crawl under stones, or sometimes under the loose bark on tree trunks.

The Snake Flies are curious looking creatures with elongated necks, and the female is provided with a very curious, long, curved ovipositor. They are found under bark on tree trunks, both in the perfect and larval state; they are unknown in Australia, but Howard states that an attempt was made some years ago to send living _Raphidians_ from California to destroy codlin moth grubs, but that nothing has been heard of them since.

Family 5. Scorpion Flies.

PANORPIDAE.

These insects have the head turned down in front with the mouth parts forming an elongate beak; large projecting eyes; and slender antennae. The prothorax forms a slender neck to the larger mesothorax; the wings are narrow and somewhat oar-shaped, traversed with a network of veins; the legs are long and slender, except the hind pair, which are thickened on the thighs and stoutly spined; the tarsi are large and coated with a sticky membrane, which assists it in catching flies.