A description of the adult and the nymphal stages of Schizodactylus monstrosus (Drury) (Orthoptera)

Summary

	1 The life-cycle of Schizodactylus monstrosus takes more than a year for its completion and passes through nine nymphal instars.
	2 Like adults, all the nymphs make solitary burrows for their habitation. They live in very specific conditions of loose moist sand near water expanses. The tunnels are dug solely with the jaws, at 60-degree angle to the ground, and with no side tunnels. The depth of the tunnel correspondingly increases with each instar, and is about 2 feet in the case of adult insect. The diameter of the tunnel varies from ¼ to 1¼ inches. Characteristically, the nymphs and adults close the openings of their burrows with projecting plugs of sand.
	3 Like adults, all the nymphs are carnivorous and nocturnal in habts, and shun direct sunlight.
	4 The adult insect is large, robustly built and looks ferocious. Save for the difference in size all the nymphs are almost similar in form and colouration to the adult, with no different morphological features. The fore and mid tibiae are characteristically green in colour in all the nymphs and adult.
	5 The wings in adult are rolled posteriorly in a peculiar spiral lying over the cerci. They can hardly be used for the purpose of flight.