Fig. 181.—A, Mastax (Erianthus) guttatus, male. Sumatra. (After Westwood.) B, profile; C, front of head.
The tribe Mastacides includes thirty or forty species of Acridiidae with short antennae and vertical head (Fig. 181, Mastax guttatus); they are apparently all rare and little known, but are widely distributed in the tropics of the Old and New Worlds. Nothing whatever seems to be known of their habits or of their development.
The tribe Pneumorides includes a still smaller number of species of very aberrant and remarkable grasshoppers, of large size, with short antennae, and with the pronotum prolonged and hood-like; they are peculiar to South Africa. Although amongst the most remarkable of Insects, we are not able to give any information as to their habits. It would appear from the form of their legs that they have but little power of hopping. The species of which we figure the female (Fig. 182) is very remarkable from the difference in colour of the sexes. The female is so extravagantly coloured that she has been said to look as if "got up" for a fancy-dress ball. She is of a gay green, with pearly white marks, each of which is surrounded by an edging of magenta; the white marks are very numerous, especially on the parts of the body not shown in our figure; the face has magenta patches and a large number of tiny pearly-white tubercles, each of which, when placed on a green part, is surrounded by a little ring of mauve colour. Though the female is certainly one of the most remarkably coloured of Insects, her consort is of a modest, almost unadorned green colour, and is considerably different in form. He is, however, provided with a musical apparatus, which it is possible may be a means of pleasing his gorgeous but dumb spouse. It consists of a series of ridges placed on each side of the inflated abdomen, which, as we have previously (p. [200]) remarked, has every appearance of being inflated with the result of improving its resonance.
Fig. 182.—Pneumora scutellaris, female. South Africa.
The Pyrgomorphides[[235]] is a small tribe of about 120 described species, two of which are found in the south of Europe (Fig. 183, Pyrgomorpha grylloides). The tribe includes a number of large and curious Insects, among them the species of Phymateus and Petasia, with peculiar excrescences on the pronotum and vivid colours on some parts of the body or its appendages, which are apparently common Insects in South Africa.
The tribe Tryxalides includes a great many species of grasshoppers. In them the front of the head joins the upper part at an acute angle (Figs. 165 and 173). This tribe and the Acridiides are the most numerous in species of the family. To the latter belong most of the migratory locusts of the New World (Fig. 175, Caloptenus spretus). A Spanish species of this tribe, Euprepocnemis plorans, though provided with well-developed wings, possesses the remarkable habit of seeking shelter by jumping into the water and attaching itself below the surface to the stems of plants.
Fig. 183.—Pyrgomorpha grylloides. South Europe. (After Fischer.)
