660 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLIILE. THE CRICKETS. 



pair the longer; anal cerci long, cylindrical, tapering, very bristly. 

 .Male with subgeuital plate boat-shaped, its apex rounded, feebly 

 upcurved, deeply cleft. Ovipositor short, rather stout, straight. 



The species of Mjinm'coitlilla are among the smallest of Orthop- 

 tera, and occur in all parts of the earth. They are always found 

 either in company with ants or on the ground beneath cover 

 where ants are very likely to occur. The principal literature 

 treating of our American forms is as follows : Brunei-, 18S4 ; 

 vScudder, 1899d ; Wheeler, 1000; Blatchley, 1003; Schimmer, lOO'.i. 



Wheeler (1000) has given an interesting account of the halt its 

 of one of these little crickets from which I quote at length as 

 follows: 



"In the present paper I wish to call attention to the peculiar habits of 



Myrmecophila nebrascensis Bru- 

 ner which is very common in the 

 vicinity of Austin, Texas, where 

 it may be found in the nests of 

 no less than five very different 

 species of ants. My observations 

 on the habits of this Myrmeco- 

 phila began early in March. The 

 little crickets were taken from 



Fig. 217. Myrmecopmla nebrascensis Bruii. 



(After Lugger.) the Formica or red ants' nests 



and placed in artificial nests of the agricultural ant, an inject of much 

 larger size, slower movements and in many other respects more satisfac- 

 tory for purposes of observation than the Formica. 



"On April 3d I placed in the artificial nest twenty Myrmecophilas, 

 eight or ten of which had been squeezed or had lost one or both saltatory 

 legs during capture. All the disabled individuals were at once seized and 

 dispatched in so vindictive a manner, that I could not doubt that the ants 

 were irritated by the pungent red ant nest-odor still clinging to the crick- 

 ets. In an instant all the ants in the compartment of the nest had gathered 

 in little groups, each devouring a Myrmecophila. The uninjured crickets 

 made not the slightest attempt to escape, but felt themselves perfectly at 

 home as soon as they set foot on the floor of the nest. Their adaptation 

 to a new nest and to an ant of a larger size and belonging to an entirely 

 different sub-family from their former host, was immediate and complete. 

 With constantly vibrating antennae they began dodging in and out among 

 the little groups of assembled ants. From time to time one of them would 

 be seen cautiously approaching an ant, that was busy with its dinner of 

 Myrmecophila, and fall to nibbling at its legs or the tip of its abdomen. 

 There could be no doubt that the cricket derived some benefit from the 

 oily secretion covering the surface of the ant's body. At first the ant dis- 

 regarded this nibbling, which probably resembles the attentions of the 

 toilet habitually received from sister ants, but the cricket's scraping man- 

 dibles and maxillae soon grew annoying and the ant would either move 

 away or turn its head, open its mandibles and make a lunge at the Myrme- 

 cophila like a large dog annoyed by a puppy But before the huge mandi- 



