Teacher's Leaflet. 1197 



the " chin." The palpi are used to test food and prove it to be palatable. The 

 crickets are fond of melon or other sweet, juicy fruits, and by putting such food 

 into the cage we can see the crickets bite out pieces with their sidewise working 

 jaws, chewing the toothsome morsel with gusto. They take hold of the sub- 

 stance they are eating with the front feet as if to make sure of it. 



The wing covers of the cricket are bent down at the sides 

 at right angles like a box cover. The wing covers are much 

 shorter than the abdomen and beneath them are vestiges of 

 wings which are never used. The male has longer wing covers 

 than the female and they are veined in a peculiar scroll 

 pattern. This veining seems to be for the purpose of making 

 a sounding board of the wing membrane, stretching it out as 

 the drum-head is stretched. Near the base of the wing cover 

 is a heavy cross vein covered with transverse ridges which 

 is called the file; on the inner edge of the same wing, near 

 the base, is a hardened portion called the scraper. When he 

 makes his cry the cricket lifts his wing covers at an angle of 

 forty-five degrees and draws the scraper of the under wing Wing of the cricket 

 against the file of the over-lapping one; lest his musical ap- musician enlarged, 

 paratus become worn out he can change by putting the other showing the -file at 

 wing cover above. The wing covers are excellent sounding a and the scraper 

 boards and they quiver as the note is made, setting the air at b 

 in vibration, and sending the sound a long distance. (See 

 manual for study of insects, p. 116.) The female cricket's wing covers are more 

 normal in venation and she may always be distinguished from her spouse through 

 the long swordlike ovipositor at the end of her body; this she thrusts into the 

 ground when she lays her eggs, thus placing them where they will remain safely 

 protected during the winter. Both sexes have a pair of " tail feathers," as the 

 children call them, which are known as the cerci and are 

 fleshy prongs at the end of the abdomen. 



There would be no use of the cricket's playing his mando- 

 lin if there was not an appreciative ear to listen to hisThe file of the cricket's 

 music. This ear is placed most conveniently in the tibia wing, greatly en- , 

 of the front leg, so that the crickets literally hear with their larged 

 elbows, as do the katydids and the meadow grasshoppers. 

 The ear is easily seen with the naked eye as a little, white, disk-like spot. 



The chirp of the cricket is in literature usually associated with the coming 

 of autumn; but the careful listener may hear him in early summer, although his 

 song is not then so insistent as later in the season. He usually commences sing- 

 ing in the afternoon and keeps it up periodically all night. I have always been 

 an admirer of the manly, dignified methods of this little "minnesinger" who 

 does not wander abroad to seek his lady love but stands sturdily at his own gate 

 playing his mandolin the best he is able; he has faith th^t his sable sweetheart 

 is not far away and that if she likes his song she will come to him of her own free 

 will. The cricket is ever a lover of warmth and his mandolin gets out of tune 

 soon after the evenings become frosty. The cricket is a jealous musician; when 

 he hears the note of a rival he at once " bristles up," lifting his wings at a higher 

 angle and giving of! a sharp militant note. If the two rivals come in sight of 

 each other there is a fierce duel. They rush at each other with wide open jaws. 



