126 BRITISH ORTHOPTERA. 



appear, may survive the winter, witness the example, 

 already mentioned, taken by Bracken on 20 Dec. 

 1 912. The mole-cricket is not now common in Britain, 

 so it does not seem possible to speak definitely of its 

 habits here. 



HABITS.- -Four common names at least have been 

 bestowed on Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, and all are appro- 

 priate- -mole-cricket, fen-cricket, churr-worm, and eve- 

 churr. The most cursory examination of the forelegs 

 reveals the fact that these are wonderfully well adapted 

 as tools for burrowing in the ground. Placed on soil 

 such as it likes- -wet or swampy ground especially 

 the mole-cricket buries itself with great rapidity. It 

 works along underground like a field-mouse, raising 

 a ridge as it goes.* It is able to run backwards quite 



easilv, a feat which must be extremely useful to it 



<j 3 i/ 



while moving about its burrows. That the long cerci 

 (and even the curled-up wing-tips) act as antennae 

 under such circumstances is certainly reasonable, but 

 cannot be said to have been proved. The mole-cricket 

 is a cumbersome looking insect, but it takes to the 

 wing nevertheless. G. Dalgliesh took one in Surrey 

 -a very fine specimen which flew against his face 

 about 9 p.m. in June. Parfitt mentions examples in 

 the streets of Exeter early in the morning, the inference 

 being that they flew there. H. Moore found one in 

 Lower Road, Deptford, which he considered to have 

 been attracted by the electric light. F. "W. Sowerby 

 mentions the mole-cricket having been attracted by 

 light in Egypt. Curtis t says: "This insect is 

 supposed to be the c Will o' the wisp,' the ' ignis 

 fatuus,' about which so much has been said and so 

 little proved, the phantom that has eluded the vigi- 

 lance of the naturalist and the curious for ages." 

 Kirby and Spence { say that in 1780 a learned friend 

 had a mole-cricket brought to him by a farmer, who 



* Kirby & Spence, ii, p. 362. 



t ' British Entomology/ No. 456. 



^ Kirby & Spence, ii, p. 416. 



