50 



British Crickets. 



By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. Read December dth, 1915. 



On previous occasions I have read papers dealing with all the 

 groups of the Orthoptera represented in Britain with the exception 

 of the Gryllodea. To complete the series I have therefore prepared 

 the following paper. 



Four crickets are the sole British representatives of a group of 

 insects which present not a few points of interest. Around one of 

 them indeed — the house cricket — tradition has spread a halo almost 

 of sanctity, though in real life the housewife or the baker do not 

 regard it with the same degree of favour. Romance, however, sees 

 with very different eyes when it looks upon the " Cricket on the 

 Hearth," about which novelists have written and poets have sung 

 so freely. 



We may define the Gryllodea as : — Orthoptera ivith slender, 

 usually long, antenna. Elytra {at reiit) with the dorsal jjart lyiny fiat 

 on the body, and the lateral turned down over the sides. Tarsi usually 

 three-jointed; hind leys suited for leaping. "Ear" and "musical" 

 organs situated similarly to those of the Locustodea. Eemale with a 

 long exserted ovipositor [except in Oryllotalpida; and Tridactylida). 

 Cerci long. Many uingless forms. 



Seven families are usually given as comprising the Gryllodea : — 



Tridactylidfe. 



Gryllotalpidffi. 



Myrmecophilidae. 



Gryllidae. 



CEcanthid*. 



Trigonidiidae. 



Eneopteridfe. 



In Britain we have representatives of two families only. Three 

 of our four species fall into the t^'pical family — Gryllid(v — the 

 remaining one into the Gryllotalpida. Western Europe has a far 

 more representative list. Two of the British crickets occur in Scot- 

 land, whereas but one of the nine Locustids has been recorded from 

 the Northern Kingdom. 



As far as we know crickets seem to be somewhat general feeders, 

 though perhaps with some at any rate the proclivities are rather 



* W = represented in western Europe; B = represented in the British Isles. 



