Plate [XLIX]. fig. 1.
Order: Orthoptera. Section: Saltatoria. Family: Locustidæ (Acridites, Serv.).
Genus. Locusta. Gryllus; Sect. Locusta, Linn. Gryllus, Fabr. Acrydium, Latr. (Subgenus. Rutidoderes, Westw. Acrydium, Serv. )
Locusta (Rutidoderes) Squarrosa. Viridis, pronoto tripartito spinoso, elytris viridibus fusco-punctatis, alis rubris nigro punctatis. (Expans. Alar. 4 unc.)
Syn. Gryllus Squarrosus, Linn. Mant. 533. Fabr. Ent. Syst. 2. 52.
Habitat: Sierra Leone.
Head green. Eyes perfectly round and dark brown, very prominent, and standing at a little distance from each other. Antennæ 18-jointed, longer than the thorax, which is dark green, and on the upper part gibbous; having on each side three swellings, each of which terminates in three short and thick spines. Tegmina darkish green, with a great number of small black spots on them of different shapes. Wings scarlet, spotted with black; the spots being larger than those of the wing-cases, and of different shapes. Abdomen green, with several yellow rings surrounding it, and about the same length as the tegmina. Legs green; the thighs being armed with spines.
Our author states, that he was informed by a gentleman who lived several years at Sierra Leone, and by whom this species was communicated to him, that "they appear about the end of June, and soon afterwards retire among the branches of the palm trees, where they reside till the violent rains compel them to quit that situation, and live among the plants, &c. on the ground." In the Introduction to the third volume, he however states on the authority of Mr. Smeathman, that "this beautiful locust is an inhabitant of the sandy plains, called Savannas, which indeed abound with palms; but my friend is in doubt whether they have any kind of predilection for those trees.
"'Although the hot climates abound in every part with insects of the locust and cicada kinds, insomuch that their chirping, particularly that of the cicadas, becomes in some instances intolerable; yet in the sandy plains before mentioned, which are thinly covered with grass, their numbers are immensely greater, and of various kinds, sizes, and colours, skipping or flirting about in all directions at every step of the traveller.' Perhaps, indeed, their kinds may not be so various as one would at first imagine, the same insect differing so much from itself in the various periods of its life. From the fact however here mentioned, it seems most certain that these insects breed under ground in Africa, as well as in these climates, according to Linnæus and other entomologists."
From the knowledge which we possess at the present time relative to the economy of this tribe of insects, it is necessary to observe, upon the last above-quoted passage, that the term "breeding under ground," must be restricted to the mere circumstance of the eggs being buried beneath the surface of the earth, because the insects in all their active stages (including that of the pupa) feed upon grass and other vegetable substances above ground.