Chapter XIIL 



Structures of Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Beetles. 



Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets^ and beetles are 

 in many respects, no less interesting than the insects 

 whose architectural proceedings we have already de- 

 tailed. They do not, indeed, build any edifice for the 

 accommodation of themselves or their progeny; but 

 most, if not all of them, excavate retreats in walls or 

 in the ground. . 



The house-cricket {Acheta domestica) is well 

 known for its h^bit of picking out the mortar of 

 ovens and kitchen fire-places, where it not only 

 enjoys warmth, but can procure abundance of 

 food. It is usually supposed that it feeds on bread. 

 M. Latreille says it only eats inwects, and it cer- 

 tainly thrives well in houses infested by the cock- 

 roach; but we have also known it eat and destroy 

 lamb's-wool stockings, and other woollen stuffs, hung 

 near a fire to dry. It is evidently not fond of hard 

 labour, but prefers those places where the mortar is 

 already loosened, or at least is new, soft, and easily 

 scooped out ; and in this way it will dig covert ways 

 from room to room. In summer, crickets often make 

 excursions from the house to the neighbouring fields, 

 and dwell in the crevices of rubbish, or the cracks 

 made in the ground by dry weather, where they chirp 

 as merrily as in the snuggest chimney corner. Whe- 

 ther they ever dig retreats m such circumstances, we 

 have not ascertained; though it is not improbable 

 they may do so for the purpose of itiaking nests. M. 



VOL. IV. 21 



