THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 147 



THE MOLE CRICKET— GRYLLOTALPA BOREALIS. 



BY E. W. DORAN, COLLEGE PARK, MD. 



In the January Canadian Entomologist Mr. James Fletcher had an 

 interesting article on his "pet" mole cricket. At his suggestion I send 

 a few notes upon the larval form of the same species. 



On January 4 last, Mr. A. I. Hayward, connected with our State 

 Experiment Station, brought me five larvae of the mole cricket, which 

 were found in rather a peculiar situation. He had a number of men 

 putting up ice. The ice had been removed from a considerable space, 

 when, wading around in the water with tall rubber boots on, he found the 

 young mole crickets swimming around upon the water. It seems there 

 was no connection between the open space and the land ; besides, as the 

 weather was very cold, they could not live upon or near the surface of 

 the ground. 



The only reasonable theory in regard to the matter is that they were 

 buried in the mud at the bottom of the pond, which is a temporary one, 

 having been flooded with water only a month or two. The wading 

 through the mud dislodged them, when they at once came to the surface. 

 However, there are some difficulties in the way of accepting this 

 hypothesis. For example : Could the crickets exist beneath the water in 

 the soft mud so near the surface for so long a time ? Westwood says in 

 regard to the European mole cricket, G. vulgaris, that the villose coating 

 of the body and wings appears to protect them from the water. Our 

 species has a similar coating of fine hairs ; but in the larvae especially it 

 seems scarcely sufticient to protect it from the effects of the water in a 

 prolonged submersion. Besides, could it live so long entirely surrounded 

 by water, cut off from the air? They must have been in the thin mud 

 very near the water to have been thus stirred out. 



They seemed very little affected by the cold or their bath ; in fact, 

 they were as '' lively as a cricket," and were apparently very much at 

 home upon the water. 



The life history of our American species, G. borealis, seems not to 

 have been studied extensively. At any rate I have been unable to find 

 figures or descriptions of the preparatory stages. It is stated that 

 G. vulgaris requires three years to come to maturity, and borealis seems 

 of very slow growth, When these specimens were taken they were but 

 little more than half an inch in length. They are at this time (March 15) 

 about .7 inch long. In two and a-half months they have increased in 

 length but little over one-tenth of an inch, though they have been kept in 



