646 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLIDJE. THE CRICKETS. 



but has to be especially sought for iu its mucky abiding places 

 and the records for the State are therefore few. 



Morse (1919a, 31) says that Iicj-<u1<t<-tyla ''probably occurs 

 throughout New England but is very local and difficult to cap- 

 ture." I can find but one record from Ontario, that of Fletcher 

 (1892) who had received it from Leamington and wrote an ex- 

 cellent account of its habits. There is no definite locality record- 

 ed from Michigan, though Hubbell has it from Washteuaw County. 

 Bruner mentions it as not rare in the eastern half of Nebraska 

 and McNeill as found about Moliue, 111. in August. The latter 

 states (1891, 4) that it "can be made to eject from its cerci a 

 grayish viscid substance which can be thrown several inches. The 

 ejected mass does not have any noticeably bad odor, and if used 

 to repel the attacks of enemies it is probably efficient by en- 

 tangling the feet and covering the eyes of attacking insects." Of 

 this habit Baumgartner (1910 316) says: "If one seizes a mole 

 cricket of either sex it squirts from its anus a brown liquid of 

 nauseating fetidity. This liquid is formed iu part by excrement 

 from the rectum and is in part the secretion of a special gland. 

 I' is protective in function, operating both as a repellent by its 

 fetidity and as a restardant by its great viscidity or stickiness." 



The note of the male mole cricket is a sharp di-syllabic chirp, 

 continuously repeated and loud enough to be heard several rods 

 away. It is usually attributed, by those who have given little at- 

 tention to insect sounds, to the field cricket or to some of the 

 smaller frogs. The cricket is very difficult to locate by this note, 

 and I have on several occasions approached cautiously, on hands 

 and knees, a certain spot, and remained silent for several minutes 

 while the chirping went on apparently beneath my very eyes; yet, 

 when the supposed exact position of the chirper was determined 

 and a quick movement was made to unearth him, he could not be 

 found. Indeed, it is only by chance, as by the sudden turning over 

 of a log in a soft mucky place, that a person can happen upon one 

 of them unawares. Even then quick motion is usually necessary 

 to capture him before he scrambles into the open mouth of one of 

 the burrows which he has ever in readiness. I have heard their 

 note in the forenoon of cloudy days, but it is much more common 

 in the afternoon. Scudder who has set the note to scale says of 

 it (1893 63) : 



"Our common mole cricket usually begins its daily chirp at about four 

 o'clock in the afternoon, but stridulates most actively at about dusk. On 

 a cloudy day, however, it may be heard as early as two or three o'clock; 



