412 REPOET OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



autumn be seen by those interested enough to search for them. The 

 burrows are, in the main, very superficial, lying just beneath the 

 surface and running in very irregular directions. They frequently 

 fork, and often end beneath a stone or small stick. The insects 

 themselves are seldom seen, as they are nocturnal, forming their 

 burrows by night, and scarcely ever emerging from beneath the 

 ground. Moreover, like a mole, they move backward as readily as 

 forward, and so easily escape their enemies. Apparently one insect, 

 or a single pair occupy these burrows; the males, though several are 

 often heard at the same time, being usually at quite a distance apart. 



The burrows occasionally enlarge into side cavities large enough 

 for the insect to turn around, and in such lateral chambers the eggs 

 are sometimes found in masses of 60 to 100, adhering to the rootlets 

 of various plants. These eggs are spherical, white or almost color- 

 less, and have a diameter of 0.7 mm. The young are active leapers, 

 and are said to be about three years in reaching maturity. On July 

 19, 1894, a hundred or more of the half-grown young were captured 

 in a small meshed seine while collecting fishes in a small stream in 

 Montgomery County. They were evidently burrowing in the soft 

 mud close to shore or perhaps in the mud beneath the shallow water. 

 Just a year later a number of young were also taken in a seine from 

 the waters of the outlet of Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko County. Since 

 they feed, during their lives, mainly upon the tender roots of various 

 plants, they are necessarily very injurious and it is fortunate that 

 with us they are not more common than they are. 



The note of the male mole cricket is a sharp di-syllabic chirp, con- 

 tinuously repeated 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. 

 The cricket is 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 several minutes while the 

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

 supposed 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 un- 

 awares. Even then quick m'otion is necessary to capture him before 

 he scrambles into the open mou-th of one of the burrows which he 

 has ever in readiness. I have heard their note in the forenoon of 

 cloudy days, but it is much more common in the afternoon, and Mr. 

 Scudder, who has given especial attention to the sounds of insects. 



