696 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLID.E. THE CRICKETS. 



numerous and the males' stridulation could be heard on all sides 

 in the afternoon and evening. They were especially abundant in 

 thick short dead grass on a hillside." He found some in small 

 perpendicular burrows from one to two inches deep, and others 

 beneath stones. No specimens were taken after June 23, though 

 specimens of the pale form M. saussurci were found on August 8. 



VI. GRYLLUS Linnaeus, 1758, 425. (L., "cricket.") 

 THE FIELD AND HOUSE CRICKETS. 



"The voice of the crickets, heard at noon from deep in the grass, allies 

 day to night. It is a midnight sound heard at noon, a midday sound heard 

 at midnight." Thoreau. 



This, the typical genus of the family Gryllidse, comprises 

 crickets of medium or large size and robust form, having the head 

 large, subglobose, usually slightly broader than prouotum; eyes 

 rounded, prominent ; antennae very slender, setaceous, longer than 

 the body ; pronotum broader than long, its disk rounded into the 

 lateral lobes, which are longer than deep, with lower margin 

 oblique or feebly curved, the front and hind angles rounded ; teg- 

 mina and wings variable in length, the former with large shrill- 

 ing organ in male ; hind femora very much enlarged, shorter than 

 tibire and tarsi united; hind tibia? armed above on each side with 

 five to eight large stout movable spines and at apex with three 

 pairs of unequal spurs; basal segment of hind tarsi stout, armc"! 

 above with a row of short spines on each margin, its apex ter- 

 minating in two stout spurs, the inner one the longer; second 

 joint very small, compressed ; apical segment slender, about half 

 as long as the basal one; anal cerci nearly as long as hind femora, 

 slender, bristly, tapering; ovipositor as long as or longer than the 

 hind femora, variable in length in the different forms, its extreme 

 apex feebly enlarged, not serrulate. 



To this genus belong those dark colored thick-bodied insects 

 known as house and field crickets. The latter are the best known 

 examples of the family Gryllidse and in Indiana are abundant 

 from June 1st till after heavy frosts, beneath logs, boards, stones, 

 and especially beneath rails in the corners of the old-fashioned 

 and rapidly disappearing Virginia rail fences. 



Regarding the general habits of the field crickets Bruner 

 (1886, 11)4) has written: "Usually most of our North American 

 CJrylli live singly or in pairs in burrows which they dig for 

 themselves. These are used as retreats during the day time and 

 serve as shelter from ordinarv inclemencies of weather- These 



