View source for The New International Encyclopædia/Orthoptera

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'''ORTHOP'TERA''' (Neo-Lat. nom. pl., from
Gk. ὄρθόπτερος, having upright wings, from ὄρθός,
''orthos'', straight, correct + πτερόν, ''pteron'',
wing). A large and important group of insects
comprising the forms known as the straight-winged
insects, and including the [[../Grasshopper|grasshoppers]]
or true locusts, long-horned grasshoppers {{hws|(in|(including}}
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{{hwe|cluding|(including}} [[../Katydid|katydids]]),
[[../Cricket|crickets]], [[../Cockroach|cockroaches]],
[[../Walking-stick|walking-sticks]], and [[../Leaf-insect|leaf-insects]],
and the [[../Praying Mantis|praying
mantis]] or rear-horse (qq.v.). The mouth parts
are fitted for biting, and the metamorphoses are
incomplete, the young when first hatched closely
resembling the adult insects except in lacking
wings. The eggs are few in number, and as a rule
are laid in specialized egg-cases, although with
some they are deposited without such cases, and
with a few are scattered singly. The fore wings
are somewhat thickened, but are not as tough as
the wing-cases of beetles, and when at rest lie
closed upon the back so as to protect the abdomen
and the hind wings. They are known as
&lsquo;tegmina.&rsquo; The hind wings function in flight, and
are delicate and usually folded like a fan. About
10,000 species exist, which makes it a small order
when compared with the Hymenoptera, the
Coleoptera, and the Lepidoptera, but, in spite of the
comparatively small number of eggs, many of the
species are tenacious of life and apparently very
prolific, and swarm in enormous numbers of
individuals, as in the case of the destructive and
migratory locusts. One of the striking peculiarities
of the order is that we find here most highly
developed the ability to produce sounds of a
more or less musical character, by rubbing one
part of the body, modified for the purpose, upon
another. This capability thus to make sounds is
confined to the male sex, and its object is to
attract the female; and this ability belongs only to
the families which jump (the Saltatoria); the
runners, walkers, and graspers (Cursoria,
Gressoria, and Raptoria) make no sound, but in these
groups the phenomena of protective and aggressive
resemblances are very highly developed,
especially in the tropical forms. In these groups the
wings seem to be of little use as organs of flight,
but they are of striking value in ornamentation
and in concealment. This is especially true with
the Phasmidæ and Mantidæ, where the effectiveness
of color and pattern is extraordinary, the
tegmina resembling plant structures with remarkable
minuteness of detail. Even the eggs are so
modified as to resemble the seeds of plants.

Orthoptera are among the oldest of fossil
insects. Cockroaches were numerous and varied in
Paleozoic time, and the other families are numerously
represented in Mesozoic and Tertiary
rocks.

Consult: Sharp, ''Cambridge Natural History''
(London, 1895); Comstock, ''Manual for the Study''
''of Insects'' (Ithaca, 1898); Howard, ''The Insect''
''Book'' (New York, 1902); Lugger, ''Annual Report''
''of the State Entomologist of Minnesota''
(Minneapolis, 1898); Scudder, ''North American Orthoptera''
(Cambridge, 1897).