374 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



The cricket's features are not so easily made out, because the head is 

 polished and black; the eyes are not so polished as the head, and the 

 simple eyes are present but are discerned with difficulty. The antenna? 

 are longer than the body and very active; there is a globular segment 

 where they join the face. I have not discovered that the crickets are so 

 fastidious about keeping generally clean as are some other insects, but 

 they are always cleaning their antennae : I have seen a cricket play his 

 wing mandolin lustily and at the same time carefully clean his antennas; 

 he polished these by putting up a foot and bending the antenna down so 

 that his mouth reached it near the base; he then pulled the antenna 

 through his jaws with great deliberation, nibbling it clean to the very end. 

 The lens reveals to us that the flexibility of the antennse is due to the fact 

 that they are many jointed. The palpi are easily seen, a large pair above 

 and a smaller pair beneath the "chin." The palpi are used to test food 

 and prove if it be palatable. The crickets are fond of melon or other 

 sweet, juicy fruits, and by putting such food into the cage we can see them 

 bite out pieces with their sidewise working jaws, chewing the toothsome 

 morsel with gusto. They take hold of the substance they are eating with 

 the front feet as if to make sure of it. 



The wing-covers of the cricket are bent down at the sides at right 

 angles, like a box cover. The wing-covers are much shorter than the 

 abdomen and beneath them are vestiges of wings, which are never used. 

 The male has larger wing-covers than the female, and they are veined in a 



peculiar scroll pattern. This veining 

 seems to be a framework for the purpose 

 of making a sounding board of the wing 

 membrane, by stretching it out as a 

 drum-head is stretched. Near the base 

 of the wing-cover, there is a heavy cross- 

 vein covered with transverse ridges, 

 which is called the file; on the inner 

 edge of the same wing, near the base, is 

 a hardened portion called the scraper. 

 When he makes his cry, the cricket lifts 

 his wing-covers at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees and draws the scraper of the 

 under wing against the file of the over- 

 lapping one; lest his musical apparatus 

 become worn out, he can change by 

 putting the other wing-cover above. 

 The wing-covers are excellent sounding 

 boards and they quiver as the note is 

 made, setting the air in vibration, and 

 sending the sound a long distance. The 

 female cricket's wing-covers are more normal in venation; and she may 

 always be distinguished from her spouse by the long sword-like ovipositor 

 at the end of her body; this she thrusts into ihe ground when she lays 

 her eggs, thus placing them where they will remain safely protected 

 during the winter. Both sexes have a pair of "tail feathers," as the 

 children call them, which are known as the cerci (sing, cerca) and are 

 fleshy prongs at the end of the abdomen. 



Male and female of the common 



black cricket, showing differences 



in their wings. The male is 



below. 

 Photo by M. V. Slingerland. 



