THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 287 



concealing itself in the day time among the leaves or in 

 the flowers. It is to this hahit that the generic name 

 is due (CEcanihus)^ a word which means inhabiting 

 flowers. (Fig. 97.) 



" After hatching, the young crickets, in common with 

 all the Orthoptera, very closely resemble the adult in- 

 sects in form, and differ from them chiefly in wanting 

 wings. They move about and feed precisely like their 

 parents, but moult or change their skins repeatedly be- 

 fore they come to their full size. This corresi^onds to 

 the grub or larval stage in other insects. 



"The next stage is also quite different from that of 

 moths, butterflies, and beetles. These insects, you 

 have already learned, pass into a state of inactivity and 

 rest, in which they lose the grub-like or larval form 

 which they had when hatched from the egg, and be- 

 come the pupa or crysalis. This resembles a little 

 more nearly the mature form, but is soft, whitish, and 

 with the undeveloped wings and legs incased in a thin, 

 transparent skin, which impedes all motion." 



"Do we understand you to say," asked the Doctor, 

 " that the cricket does not pass through the crj'salis 

 stage ?" 



" Precisely. On the contrary, in the pupa state 

 crickets do not difler from the j'oung and from the old 

 insects, except in having the rudiments of wings and 

 wing-covers projecting, like little scales, from the back 

 near the thorax." 



" And is that the case with all the Orthoptera V" 



"Yes; grasshoppers, katydids, locusts, and all the 



