116 OUTLINES Of entomology. 



have the surface thickly clothed with a soft pubescence — in this, as in 

 many other particulars, imitating the genuine mole. In the fore legs 

 all the joints are flattened and broadened, the tibiiie spreading out like 

 the palm of the hand, and having on the lower edge four long, horny, 

 finger-like processes, so that they are almost exact miniatures of the 

 shovel-like fore feet of the animal from which they are named. These 

 insects are usually found in damp soils, where their horizontal galleries 

 are betrayed by the little ridges which appear on the surface of the 

 ground. They feed upon roots and under-ground stems of plants, va- 

 rying their diet by devouring any burrowing larvre or exposed pupiB 

 with which they come in contact in their tunneling operations. The 

 most common Northern species is Gryllotalpa boreales, Burm, while in 

 the Southern States O. longipennis is more frequently met with. 



The House and Field crickets live in chimneys, stone walls and 

 similar situations, or in holes in the ground. Modern methods in build- 

 ing have banished the " cricket on the hearth," whose cheerful chirp 

 formerly blended with the cosy " song " of the tea-kettle, inspiring in 

 poets and novelists some of their most beautiful thoughts on the com- 

 forts of home. 



The House Cricket (Gryllus domesticusj is of a brown or grayish 

 color, and is an immigrant from Europe and the far East. It is quite 

 abundant in our eastern cities, but is not yet very generally dissemi- 

 nated over the country. The larger Field Crickets are black with 

 brown wings, and the males of some species survive the winter and 

 may be heard chirping during warm evenings early in the spring. They 

 all belong in the same genus with the Mole and House Crickets, and 

 show much variation in coloring and in the development of the wings. 

 The eggs are deposited in masses of two or three hundred, but are not 

 enclosed in a sac as are those of the Mole Cricket. The young hatch 

 about midsummer and disperse in all directions, feeding on all varieties 

 of vegetation, often proving quite injurious. The species of NemoMus 

 appear later in the summer, are of a dull, pale brown color, sometimes 

 obscurely striped, and in one or two species the wings are wanting, and 

 the shelly elytra (wing covers) somewhat loosely enclose the body. The 

 Tree Crickets are of more slender and delicate form, with broader and 

 more glassy wing covers and long slender legs and antennie. The 

 males of (Ecanthus riiveus Har. and (E. latipennis Riley are white or 

 greenish white, the wing covers transparent, flat, and when closed, com- 

 pletely over-lapping and crossed by W-shaped ridges. When stridulat- 

 ing, these wings are elevated almost at right angles to the body and 

 the surfaces rubbed together with a motion too swift to be followed by 

 the eye, producing a metallic " whirr " that is incredibly loud and pierc- 



