131 



and loud enough to be heard several rods away. It is usually attributed, 

 by those who have given little attention to insect sounds, to the field cricket 

 or to some of the smaller frogs. They are very difficult to locate by this 

 note, and the writer has on several occasions approached cautiously, on 

 hands and knees, a certain spot and has remained silent for minutes while 

 the chirping went on apparently beneath his very eyes ; yet, when the sup- 

 posed exact position of the chirper was determined and a quick movement 

 was made to unearth him he could not be found. Indeed it is only by 

 chance, as by the sudden turning over of a log in a soft, mucky place, that 

 a person can happen upon one of them unawares. Even then ({uick move- 

 ment is necessary to capture him before he scrambles into the open mouth 

 of one of the deep burrows which he has ever in readiness. 



The eggs of the northern mole cricket are laid in underground chambers 

 in masses of from forty to sixty, and the young are about three years in 

 reaching maturity. (Jn this account, where they exist in numbers, they 

 are very destructive, feeding, as they do during that time, mainly upon the 

 tender roots of various plants. It is therefore fortunate that with us the 

 species is not more common than it is. It has been noted in Wabash, Tip- 

 pecanoe, Vigo, Putnam and Monroe counties, and is probably found through- 

 out the state, though nowhere abundant. 



Average measurements, of twelve specimens: Length of body, 33, mm.; of 

 wing covers, 10 mm.; of wings, 14 mm. 



3. Gryllotalpa collmbiana, Scudder. — The Long-winged Mole Cricket. 



Gryllotalpa longipennis, Scudder, Bost. Jour., Nat. Hist. VII, 1862,42(5. 



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

 Gryllotalpa Columbiana, Fernald, Orth. N. Eng., 1888, 14. 

 McNeill, Psyche, VI, 1891, 3. 

 This cricket was first described by INIr. Scudder, he. cit., under the speci- 

 fic name of longipennis which he afterwards changed to Columbia, the former 

 name being pre-occupied by an East India species of this genus. 



It appears to be very rare in Indiana, a single male specimen captured in 

 Clinton county, being the only one known from the state. Packard, he. 

 cit., says that it is a southern species, but it has since been recorded from 

 Illinois, Iowa and Kansas. 



In size and general appearance it closely resembles G. borealis, but it may 

 be known from that species by the much greater length of the wings 

 which extend, in the specimen mentioned, 10 mm. beyond the tip of the 



