stridulating organs which produce chirping notes (see Cricket).
The families are the Acridiidae and Locustidae—including the insects
familiarly known as locusts and grasshoppers (q.v.) and the Gryllidae
or crickets (q.v.). The Acridiidae have the feelers and the ovipositor
relatively short, and possess only three tarsal segments; their
ears are situated on the first abdominal segment and the males
stridulate by scraping rows of pegs on the inner aspect of the hind
thigh, over the sharp edges of the forewing nervures. The Locustidae
(see Grasshopper,
Katydid) have the
feelers and often also
the ovipositor very
elongate; the foot is
four-segmented; the
ears are placed at the
base of the foreshin
and the stridulation is
due to the friction of a
transverse “file” beneath
the base of the
left forewing over a
sharp ridge on the
upper aspect of the
right. In some of these
insects the wings are
so small as to be useless
for flight, being modified
altogether for
stridulation. The
Gryllidae (fig. 5) are nearly
related to the Locustidae,
having long
feelers and ovipositors,
and agreeing with the latter family in the position of the ears. The
forewings are curiously arranged when at rest, the anal region of
the wing lying dorsal to the insect and the rest of the wing being
turned downwards at the sides (see Cricket).
After Marlatt, Ent. Bull. 4, n. s. U.S. Dept. Agr. |
Fig. 5.—House Cricket (Gryllus domesticus); ♂, male; ♀, female. Natural size. |
Fossil History.—The Orthoptera are an exceedingly interesting order of insects as regards their past history. In Palaeozoic rocks of Carboniferous age the researches of S. H. Scudder have revealed insects with the general aspect of cockroaches and phasmids, but with the two pairs of wings similar to each other in texture and form. In the Mesozoic rocks (Trias and Lias) there have been discovered remains of insects intermediate between those ancient forms and our modern cockroaches, the differentiation between forewings and hindwings having begun. The Orthopteroid type of wings appears therefore to have arisen from a primitive Isopteroid condition.
Bibliography.—A description and enumeration of all known Dermaptera has been lately published by A. de Bormans and H. Kraus, Das Tierreich, xi. (Berlin, 1900). See also W. F. Kirby, Synomymic Catalogue of Orthoptera, pt. i. (London, Brit. Mus., 1904). See also, for earwigs, Kirby, Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool., xxiii. (1890); E. E. Green, Trans. Entom. Soc. (1898); K. W. Verhoeff, Abhandl. K. Leopold-Carol. Akad., lxxxiv. (1905); and M. Burr, Science Gossip, iv. (N.S., 1897); for Hemimerus, see H. J. Hansen, Entom. Tidsk., xv. (1894). For Orthoptera generally, see C. Brunner von Wattenwyl, Prodromus der europäischen Orthopteren (Leipzig, 1882), and Ann. Mus. Genov. xiii. (1892), &c. R. Tümpel, Die Geradflügler Mitteleuropas (Eisenbach, 1901). The Orthoptera have been largely used for anatomical and embryological researches, the more important of which are mentioned under Hexapoda (q.v.). Of memoirs on special groups of Orthoptera may be mentioned here—J. O. Westwood, Catalogue of Phasmidae (London, Brit. Mus., 1859), and Rivisio Familiae Mantidarum (London, 1889); L. C. Miall and A. Denny, The Cockroach (London, 1886); E. B. Poulton, Trans. Ent. Soc. (1896); A. S. Packard, “Report on the Rocky Mountain Locust” in 9th Rep. U.S. Survey of Territories (1875). For our native species see M. Burr, British Orthoptera (Huddersfield, 1897); D. Sharp’s chapters (viii.-xiv.) Cambridge Nat. History, vol. v. {1895), give an excellent summary of our knowledge. (G. H. C.)
ORTHOSTATAE (Gr. ὀρθοστάτης, standing upright), the term
in Greek architecture given to the lowest course of masonry of
the external walls of the naos or cella, consisting of vertical
slabs of stone or marble equal in height to two or three of the
horizontal courses which constitute the inner part of the wall.
ORTHOSTYLE (Gr. ὄρθος, straight, and στῦλος, a column), in architecture, a range of columns placed in a straight row, as for instance those of the portico or flanks of a classic temple.
ORTIGUEIRA, a seaport of north-western Spain, in the province of Corunna; on the northern slope of the Sierra de la Faladoira, on the river Nera and on the eastern shore of the Ría de Santa Marta—a winding, rock-bound and much indented inlet of the Bay of Biscay, between Capes Ortegal and Vares, the northern-most headlands of the Peninsula. The official total of the inhabitants of Ortigueira (18,426 in 1900) includes many families which dwell at some distance; the actual urban population does not exceed 2000. The industries are fishing and farming. Owing to the shallowness of the harbour large vessels cannot enter, but there is an important coasting trade, despite the dangerous character of the coast-line and the prevalence of fogs and gales. The sea-bathing and magnificent scenery attract visitors in summer even to this remote district, which has no railway and few good roads.
ORTLER, the highest point (12,802 ft.) in Tirol, and so in the whole of the Eastern Alps. It is a great snow-clad mass, which rises E. of the Stelvio Pass, and a little S. of the upper valley of the Adige (whence it is very conspicuous) between the valleys of Trafoi (N.W.) and of Sulden (N.E.). It was long considered to be wholly inaccessible, but was first conquered in 1804 by three Tirolese peasants, of whom the chief was Josef Pichler. The first traveller to make the climb was Herr Gebhard in 1805 (sixth ascent). In 1826 Herr Schebelka, and in 1834 P. K. T. Thurwieser attained the summit, but it was only after the discovery of easier routes in 1864 by F. F. Tuckett, E. N. and H. E. Buxton, and in 1865 by Herr E. von Mojsisovics that the expedition became popular. Many routes to the summit are now known, but that usually taken (from the Payer Club hut, easily accessible from either Sulden or Trafoi) from the north is daily traversed in summer and offers no difficulties to moderately experienced walkers. (W. A. B. C.)
ORTNIT, or Otnit, German hero of romance, was originally
Hertnit or Hartnit, the elder of two brothers known as the
Hartungs, who correspond in German mythology to the Dioscuri.
His seat was at Holmgard (Novgorod), according to the Thidrekssaga
(chapter 45), and he was related to the Russian saga heroes.
Later on his city of Holmgard became Garda, and in ordinary
German legend he ruled in Lombardy. Hartnit won his bride,
a Valkyrie, by hard fighting against the giant Isungs, but was
killed in a later fight by a dragon. His younger brother, Hardheri
(replaced in later German legend by Wolfdietrich), avenged
Ortnit by killing the dragon, and then married his brother’s
widow. Ortnit’s wooing was corrupted by the popular interest
in the crusades to an Oriental Brautfahrtsaga, bearing a very
close resemblance to the French romance of Huon of Bordeaux.
Both heroes receive similar assistance from Alberich (Oberon),
who supplanted the Russian Ilya as Ortnit’s epic father in
middle high German romance. Neumann maintained that the
Russian Ortnit and the Lombard king were originally two
different persons, and that the incoherence of the tale is due to
the welding of the two legends into one.
See editions of the Heldenbuch and one of Ortnit and Wolfdietrich by Dr. J. L. Edlen von Lindhausen (Tübingen, 1906); articles in the Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum by K. Müllenhoff (xii. pp. 344-354, 1865; xiii. pp. 185-192, 1867), by J. Seemüller (xxvi. 201-211, 1882), and by E. H. Meyer (xxxviii. pp. 85-87, 1894), and in Germania by F. Neumann (vol. xxvii. pp. 191-219, Vienna, 1882). See also the literature dealing with Huon of Bordeaux.
ORTOLAN, JOSEPH LOUIS ELZÉAR (1802–1873), French
jurist, was born at Toulon, on the 21st of August 1802. He
studied law at Aix and Paris, and early made his name by two
volumes, Explication historique des institutes de Justinien (1827),
and Histoire de la législation romaine (1828), the first of which
has been frequently republished. He was made assistant
librarian to the court of cassation, and was promoted after
the Revolution of 1830 to be secretary-general. He was also
commissioned to give a course of lectures at the Sorbonne on
constitutional law, and in 1836 was appointed to the chair of
comparative criminal law at the university of Paris. He
published many works on constitutional and comparative law, of
which the following may be mentioned: Histoire du droit
constitutionnel en Europe pendant le moyen âge (1831); Introduction
historique au cours de législation pénale comparée (1841); he was
the author of a volume of poetry Les enfantines (1845). He
died in Paris, on the 27th of March 1873.
ORTOLAN (Fr. ortolan, Lat. hortulanus, the gardener bird, from hortus, a garden), the Emberiza hortulana of Linnaeus, a bird celebrated for the delicate flavour of its flesh, and a member