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CHAPTER XIII. 



STRUCTURES OF GRASSHOPPERS, CRICKETS, AND BEETLES. 



Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, and beetles are, in many 

 respects, no less interesting than the insects whose archi- 

 tectural proceedings we have already detailed. They do 

 not, indeed, build any edifice for the accommodation of them- 

 selves or their progeny ; but most, if not all of them, exca- 

 vate retreats in walls or in the ground. 



The house-cricket (Acheta domestica) is well known for its 

 habit of picking out the mortar of ovens and kitchen fire- 

 jolaces, 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 insects, and .'it cer- 

 tainly thrives well in houses infested by the cockroach ; 

 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 comer. Whether they ever 

 dig retreats in such circumstances we have not ascertained ; 

 though it is not improbable they may do so for the purpose 

 of making nests. M. Bory St. Vincent tells us that the 

 Spaniards are so fond of crickets that they keep them in 

 cages like singing birds.* 



The Molk-Cricket. 

 The insect, called, from its similarity of habits to the 

 mole, the mole-cricket {Gryllotalpa vulgaris, Latr.) is but 

 * Diet. Classique d'Hist. Nat. Art. Grillon. 



