STRAIGHT- WINGED INSECTS, 161 



out getting wet, and this instinct teaches them to do, 

 because if they should wet their antenna?, they would 

 trouble them by sticking together. 



Crickets, when young and before they are pro 



with wings, live peacefully together under ston£sf SutfT 



^ ^ fj 

 as they get their growth and wings, they beeomfe -gjre-at' 



enemies to each other. The females bite off tSer4egs u | pit 



i\, CD 

 of the males, and the males themselves are conMifuako <&£ 



ly fighting with each other. If they meet face to^fec^g * J* 



they butt one another like rams, and if they meet back 



to back, they kick like horses. 



This quarrelsome disposition of Field-Crickets may 

 be made serviceable in getting rid of the House-Crick- 

 ets, for it is only necessary to bring a few of the for- 

 mer into the house, or rooms, which is infested with 

 the latter, and war will take place in the camp imme- 

 diately. 



The youth of Germany, however, are extremely fond 

 of them, and there is scarcely a boy who has not seve- 

 ral small boxes made expressly for keeping his Crick- 

 ets in. They catch them by thrusting a long flexible 

 stem of grass into their holes and forcing them out, 

 and so much delighted are they with their music, that 

 they carry their boxes of Crickets into their bed-rooms 

 at night, and are soothed to sleep with their chirping 

 lullaby. 



The House or Domestic Cricket, Acheta domestica. is 

 12 



