652 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLIDJE. THE CRICKETS. 



"The young changa very seldom leaves the ground unless driven out 

 by water, but the adults are frequently to be seen hurrying over the sur- 

 face even in the daytime. The adult males frequently fly at night and are 

 attracted to light. Though their flight is laborious, like that of a large 

 beetle, and not long sustained, they sometimes rise to a light 20 feet or 

 more above the ground. They seem to prefer dark, cloudy nights in which 

 to make their serial excursions. Whenever the soil is moist and not too 

 hot, be it night or day, its work of destruction is carried on, though, of 

 course much the greater amount of damage is done at night. Its habit of 

 burrowing just beneath the surface in a great measure saves it from the at- 

 tacks of lizards, but not entirely from fowls and blackbirds, that are quick 

 to notice the slightest movement of the earth on top of the burrow and to 

 recognize the cause thereof. These burrows, ramifying through the soil in 

 the vicinity of food plants, are kept open and utilized for a considerable 

 length of time by all the mole crickets frequenting that soil area. Thus 

 it will be seen a changa can readily pass from the roots of one food plant 

 to those several feet, or perhaps even yards, distant without emerging 

 from the ground or making any new gallery. 



"When removed from the ground, or sometimes when surprised on the 

 surface, the adult changa has the habit of feigning death. This 'possum' 

 act may be prolonged several minutes. After a few minutes of intense ac- 

 tivity directly after coming to a light, the changa usually strikes an atti- 

 tude of meditation, as it were, and remains absolutely motionless for a con- 

 siderable length of time. 



"The changa's food consists almost wholly of living plants; the stom- 

 ach, however, is always found to contain more or less mud and sand, which 

 is probably unavoidably eaten along with the roots. Portions of decaying 

 plants and leaves and stems of living plants are sometimes eaten. In cap- 

 tivity, even with plenty of its normal food, the changa will eat the dead 

 and dying individuals of its own kind; and we suspect that it varies its 

 normal diet with an occasional earthworm, as we have kept specimens in 

 cages on an unmixed diet of earthworms for a week or more." 



311. SCAPTERISCUS ABBREVIATES Scudcler, 1869a, 14. Lesser Short-winged 



Mole Cricket. 



Size medium; form robust. Brownish-fuscous blotched with pale yel- 

 low on thorax and abdomen; head blackish, maculate with yellow; veins 

 of the tegmina fuscous. Ocelli minute, rounded, nearly flat. Pronotum 

 elongate- oval, one-third longer than wide. Tegmina scarcely reaching 

 middle of hind femora, wings rudimentary. Fore trochanters long, 

 straight, slightly twisted at base, the sides parallel, tip broadly rounded; 

 lower margin, except near apex, armed with numerous slender spines 

 (Fig. 214, h.) Dactyls of fore tibia; well separated at base, narrower than 

 in vicinus, feebly curved, the lower one the shorter. Upper dactyl of fore 

 tarsi distinctly longer, stouter and more curved than the lower. Hind fe- 

 mora shorter than pronotum, strongly compressed. Hind tibiae with four 

 spines on upper inner margin, these gradually increasing in length, the 

 basal one the shorter; lower inner apical spine distinctly longer than any 

 of the others. Inner hind tarsal claw as long as its supporting segment. 

 Length of body, $ and 9, 21 24; of pronotum, 10 11; of tegmina, $, 

 4.55.2, 9 , 6; of hind femora, $ , 8, 9 , 10 mm. Width of pronotum, 7 mm. 



