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INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



too well known in gardens, corn-fields, and the moist banks of 

 rivers and ponds, in some parts of England, such as Wilt- 

 shire and Hampshire, though it is comparatively rare or 

 unknown in others. It burrows in the groifnd, and forms 

 extensive galleries similar to those of the mole, though 

 smaller ; and these may always be recognised by a slightly 

 elevated ridge of mould : for the insect does not throw up 

 the earth in hillocks like the mole, but gradually, as it digs 

 along, in the manner of the field-mouse. In this way it 

 commits great ravages, in hotbeds and in gardens, upon 

 peas, young cabbages, and other vegetables, the roots of 

 which it is said to devour. It is not improbable, we think, 

 that, like its congener, the house-cricket, it may also prey 

 upon undergTound insects, and undermine the plants to 

 get at them, as the mole has been proved to do. Mr. 

 Gould, indeed, fed a mole-cricket for several months upon 

 ants. 



The structure of the mole-cricket's arms and hands (if we 



The Mole-Cricket, with a separate outline of one of its hands. 



may call them so) is admirably adapted for these operations, 

 being both very strong, and moved by a peculiar apparatus 

 of muscles. The breast is formed of a thick, hard, horny 

 substance, which is further strengthened within by a 

 double framework of strong gristle, in front of the extremi- 



