88 MANDIBULATA. ORTHOPTERA. 



300 : they are round, and of a shining yellowish-brown, and are 

 excluded in about three or four weeks. 



The sexes, as pointed out by Zetterstedt in his Orthoptera Succica 

 in 1821, differ in the neuration of the elytra, as do the other genera 

 of the family to which the mole-crickets appertain : they rarely fly, 

 and the male makes a not unpleasant chirping sound by the friction 

 of its elytra : they burrow with great rapidity by means of their 

 strong anterior legs. 



Sp. 1. vulgaris. Tomentosa, supra fusca, subtiis ferrugineo-Jlavescens, tibiis 

 anticis quadridentatis, alis elytris diiplo longioribus. (Long. corp. 1 unc. 

 10 lin.— 2unc. 3 lin.) 



Gry. gryllotalpa. Z,m»e.— Gryllot. vulgaris. Stejih. Catal. 303. No. 3347. — 

 Curtis, V. X. pi. 456 : an elegant figure. 



Above brown, beneath testaceous, or rusty-yellowish, entirely clothed with a 

 fine velvety pile : margins of thorax fulvous ; elytra dull whitish-yellow, 

 or ashy, with the costa and base brownish, and the nervures dark likewise ; 

 wings whitish, slightly iridescent, with the costa, a longitudinal streak 

 through the disc, and the anterior nervures, brown ; anterior tibiae furnished 

 exteriorly with four teeth ; of a pitchy hue, the tibiae themselves being of a 

 chestnut hue. 



The sexes, as stated by Zetterstedt in 1821, differ in the neuration of the 

 elytra, the disc in the male being more closely reticulated with nervures, 

 and during repose, in this sex, the right elytron laps over the left. 



This insect is not very abundant, but still cannot be considered 

 rare, at least in the south of England ; it frequents meadows, fields, 

 boggy places, the rich mould of garden grounds, &c. : the female, 

 towards the beginning of May, forms her cell about six inches 

 beneath the surface, in which she deposits her eggs, and the young 

 are hatched in less than a month, and do not assume their final state 

 till about the end of the succeeding May : they occur in many places 

 within the metropolitan district, and I have taken them near Ripley ; 

 they are also found in Devonshire and Cornwall : it has been 

 supposed to be the cause of the " Will o"" the wisp," but I think 

 erroneously, as those specimens that I have kept alive have shown 

 no appearances of phosphorescence ; and the effects of electro- 

 chemical phenomena are amply sufficient to account for the one in 

 question, which, like many other natural events, appears to have been 

 enveloped in mystery, from the proneness of mankind to hazard 

 theoretical opinions. 



