MORSE: ORTHOPTERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 391 
southern New England but are not seen in any numbers until the 
middle of August, continuing in abundance until killed by heavy 
frosts. The early adults are probably developed from excep- 
tional nymphs which have hibernated in that stage under logs, 
stones, and in similar shelter. They probably oviposit early and 
provide a new generation of over-wintering nymphs. 
Early in the season. Field-crickets "live singly or in pairs in 
burrows which they dig for themselves. These are used as retreat 
during the day-time and serve as shelter from ordinary inclemen- 
cies of weather. These burrows are generally forsaken about mid- 
summer for some sort of above-ground shelter. From this time 
on, until fall, they appear to be more social and live in colonies 
under various sorts of rubbish. Grain shocks are a favorite 
haunt for them, and since twine has been used for binding, the 
crickets have been quite troublesome by cutting the bands" 
(Bruner). In late summer and fall the females may often be 
seen while engaged in egg-laying, with the ovipositor driven 
nearly perpendicularly into the soil. 
The Field-cricket inhabits the whole of New England. It is 
an omnivorous feeder, eating almost any substance, animal or 
vegetable, that comes to hand out-of-doors, — herbage, fruits, 
vegetables, dead insects, — and is even cannibalistic when con- 
fined with its own kind. Occasionally it attacks garments spread 
upon the ground, in spite of apparently more toothsome viands 
near at hand. When it gains entrance to the house, as it often 
does in the autumn season, it may do injury by eating holes in 
clothing, carpets, or curtains. 
Its loud, chirping call is known to nearly everyone. This is 
made up of a series of chirps of about a half-second duration, and 
is often continued for long periods of time in the autumn, both by 
day and by night. 
European House-cricket. 
Gryllus domesticus Linn6. 
Fig. 65. 
Gryllus (Acheta) domesticus Linne, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 428 (1758). 
Gryllus domesticus Smith, Kept. Ct. Bd. Agric. for 1872, p. 354 (1873). — 
ScuDDER, Psyche, vol. 9, p. 104 (1900).— Walden, Bull. Geol. Nat. Hist. 
Surv. Ct., no. 16, p. 154 (1911). 
