294 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



reasonable calculation. In order to arrive at a better understand- 

 ing of the facts surrounding these immigrants, a few cases are 

 taken up in detail. 



The Case of Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa (L.). 

 (PL XIV, fig. 2). 



The Mole Cricket, Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa (L.), came to New- 

 Jersey from Holland, where with other members of her species, 

 she occupied her time excavating tunnels through the soil, feed- 

 ing on insect larvae, cutting ofif plant roots in her path, raising a 

 large family of children, eating them when other food was scarce, 

 and incidently making a nuisance of herself to Holland agricul- 

 turists. One day while she and her husband were resting in a 

 tunnel beneath a rhododendron growing in a nursery, the plant 

 .was suddenly dug up and before they could run, they found them- 

 selves imprisoned by a piece of burlap wrapped around the roots. 

 Too frightened to tr}^ to escape, they dug a passageway for them- 

 selves in the closely packed soil and awaited. developments. 



This plant together with others was placed in a huge box 

 which was floated down a canal in a flat-bottomed barge until an 

 ocean-going steamer was reached. Here it was loaded none too 

 gently into the hold of the vessel, which in due time docked at 

 Hoboken, New Jersey. Following this, the case was loaded on a 

 freight car and finally reached its destination in that state. Here 

 the plant was removed, the burlap around the roots loosened, and 

 the whole thing planted. Finding themselves free at last, Mr. 

 and Mrs. Gryllotalpa crawled out to investigate and found con- 

 ditions pretty much the same as they had been before their rough 

 experience. So these two "shanghaied" creatures started a sub- 

 way right then and there, and in due time raised another family. 

 During the next few years they flourished exceedingly well, in- 

 creasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, and finally cutting off' 

 so many roots that the plants wilted and died and the owner called 

 in an entomologist to suggest a remedy. 



And so ends the case of Gryllotalpa. Of course, the plants 

 were officially inspected before the ov/ner was allowed to plant 

 them, but the inspector never thought of looking in the soil around 

 the roots. If he did, he decided that it was not practical on ac- 



