304 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



put into the pit at once, lie would bite one after the other 

 until all were killed, before deciding on which to begin." 



While the grasshoppers do not construct nests, they have 

 various methods of securely depositing their eggs either in 

 the earth or in rotten wood or on the surface of leaves. Tiie 

 wingless grasshoppers avail themselves of rocks as shelters, 

 a notable example being the wingless grasshopper of Mam- 

 moth and other caves in Kentucky (Fig, 234). The English 

 cricket is said by White, in his " Natural History of Selborn," 

 to form burrows in the earth, but this habit has not yet been 

 discovered in our American species. The mole cricket, 

 however, is known to burrow in damp places in this country, 



Fig. 234. 



Cave Grasshopper, 



as well as Europe, where it forms an oven-like chamber in 

 which it deposits about a hundred eggs. It also constructs 

 extensive galleries, similar to, but smaller than, those of tlie 

 mole. The tunnel runs just under the surface of the soil, 

 and may be detected by the slightl}' raised ridge of soil like 

 that made by the mole. 



Among the bugs (Hemiptera) the only species we can 

 now recall as constructing a domicile is the young of tlie 

 seventeen-year Cicada. Our figure (235, after Rile}^) repre- 

 sents the conical nests raised above the surface of the soil 

 in wet and damp places, rising from four to six inches above 



16 



