130 



a soft, velvety appearance. The females have no visible ovipositor, and, ex- 

 ternally, may be separated from the males only by the difference in the 

 veining of the uppermost of the wing covers. By their habit of burrowing 

 beneath the soil in search of such food as the tender roots of plants, earth 

 worms and the larvpe of various insects, the anterior tibite of these crickets 

 have, in the course of ages, become so modified in structure as to closely 

 resemble the front feet of the common mole, whence the generic name, 

 Gryllolalpa, from "gryllus," a cricket, and "talpa,'^ a mole. Moreover, the 

 compound eyes have become very much aborted, being not more than one- 

 eighth the size of those of the common field cricket, Gryllus abbreviatus, Serv., 

 and, as the insect crawls rather than leaps, the hind femora are but little 

 enlarged. Two species occur in Indiana. 



2. Gryllotalpa borkalis, Burmeister. The Northern Mole Cricket. 

 Gryllotalim borealis, Scudder, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist., VII, 1862, 426. 

 Id., Dist. Ins. in N. H., 1874, 363, pi. A, fig. 7. 

 Id., Amer.Nat.,X,1876, 97,(The chirp of set to music). 

 Thomas, Trans. 111. St. Ag. Soc, V, 1865, 441. 

 Glover, I^ S. Ag. Rep. 1874, 143, fig. 17. 

 Packard, Guide to Stu. Ins., 1883, 563. 

 Fernald, Orth. N. Eng., 1888, 14, fig. 6. 

 Comstock, Int. to Entom., I, 1888, 120, fig. 121. 

 NcNeill, Psyche, VI, 1891, 3. 

 Fletcher, Can. Entom. XXIV, 1892, 23, fig. 1. 

 Doran, Can. Entom., XXIV, 270, (Life history of). 

 Gryllolalpa brevipennls, Harris, Ins. Inj. to Veg., 1862, 149, fig. 68. 

 Rathvon, U. S. Ag. Rep., 1862, 378, fig. 12. 

 The northern mole cricket may be known by the shortness of its outer 

 wings which are less than half the length of the abdomen, while the inner 

 wings extend only about one-sixth of an inch beyond them. 



In the moist mud and sand along the margins of the smaller streams and 

 ponds their runs or burrows, exactly like those of a mole though much 

 smaller, can in late summer and early autumn be seen by those interested 

 enough to search for them. These runs usually end beneath a stone or 

 small stick, but the insects themselves are very seldom seen, as they are 

 nocturnal, forming their burrows by night, and scarcely ever emerging 

 from beneath the ground. 

 The note of the male is a sharp disyllabic chirp, continuously repeated 



