92 THE REPORT OF THE No. 1^ 



The English mole-cricket is Gryllotalpa vulgaris Latr. It is a larger insect than G. borealis^ 



Dr. Lintner in his " Sixth Report on the Insects of the State of New York," says of O. 

 borealis ; — " Our-mole cricket lives in the ground, usually in moist earth — often on the sides of 

 ponds or small streams, where it burrows into the moist ground at a depth of from six to eight 

 inches, by meins of its front pair of legs which are admirably constructed for digging. Its eggs- 

 are laid in these galleries, in a tough sack, to the number of from two to three hundred, wiihin 

 the chamber scooped out for the purpose." Dr. Lintner does not say that he writes this from his 

 own observation ; and we are left somewhat in doubt as to whether the habits of our mole- 

 cricket differ from those of the European, or whether Dr. Lintner's words, " in a tough sack " 

 are a mistaken rendering of White's '' enveloped in a tough skin ", or again, whether Rennie or 

 Wood drew merely from imagination. It would be well if some Southern entomologist would 

 clear up this matter. 



G. borealis is said to hibernate in the larval condition. The perfect insect appears in May- 

 or June. The female then lays her eggs which hatch in one month. She guards her young brood 

 until they come to the second moult,for they have many enemies,among which may be reckoned 

 various kinds of ground beetles. 



In some parts of England the mole-cricket is called the " Eve-churr ", because of its peculiar 

 note ; and Professor Scudder, in an article contributed to the 23rd Report of the Ent. Soc. of 

 Ont., p. 63, compares the call of G. borealis to " a guttural sort of sound like grii or green,, 

 repeated in a trill indefinitely." 



The Field Crickets. 



But the crickets with which we are most familiar are the common field-crickets. Of these 

 we have, in the Province of Quebec, at least three easily distinguishable kinds, viz : — 



Gryllvs neglectus, Scudder. 



Gryllns niger, Harris. 



Nemobius vittatus, Harris. 



The first-named is about two-thirds of an inch long, black, with a brown line along the- 

 deflexed border of each wing-cover. 



G. niger is a smaller kind. It measures only about half an inch in length. It is jet black. 

 The males are comical little fellows. 



Nemobius vittatus is the smallest of the three. It measures only about four-tenths of an 

 inch in length. It is of a dusky brown colour and has three black lines over the head, and a 

 black line along each wing-cover. 



Insects of these three kinds are found in great numbers around Quebec. Their notes are 

 produced by stridulation. The wing-covers are slightly raised and the projecting veins of one 

 are briskly grated upon those of the other. The males only produce the sound. 



The females lay their eggs in the ground by means of their long ovipositors. • 



Harris thus speaks of the injuries done by crickets: — "Where crickets abound they do great 

 injury to vegetation eating the most tender parts of plants, and even devouring roots and fruits 

 whenever they can get them. Melons, squashes, and even potatoes are often eaten by them, 

 and the quantity of grass that they destroy must be great, from the immense numbers of these 

 insects which are sometimes seen in our meadows and fields." (Ins. inj. to Veg. , p. 1.51). 



The crickets, especially G. neglectus, are often troubled with that strange parasite the Hair- 

 snake. The Vice-President of the Quebec branch of our Society observed five of these creatures, 

 wriggle away from a cricket that a gentleman had struck down with his walking-stick — tJiey did 

 not stay upoth the order of their going. The puzzle is, how did they find their way in I This is a 

 greater puzzle than that which perplexed King George III. The monarch — so the story runs — 

 one day entered a farm house, where he was at the time unknown. The owner and his family 



