88 



The female which is larger than the male, is a little more than 1 J inches in length 

 from the front of the head to the end of the abdomen, and the antennae and tail-bristles 

 are each about half an inch more. The head is small, dark brown and moveable, the eyes 

 oval, black and shining, and when the insect is alive the facets do not show by reason of 

 their small size. Between these two compound eyes, but higher up, are two simple eyes 

 or ocelli. Pro-thorax large and prominent and like the powerful fore legs which it bears 

 is covered with a short velvety pile of a rich seal-brown with a golden reflection. The 

 wing-cases are short, | of an inch in length, pale gray, broadly veined with black, some- 

 what oval* in outline, with a deflexed outer margin, and lie flat on the back. The wings 

 themselves are also small and lie folded up like a fan beneath the wing-cases, the tips 

 exceeding them in length by about |^ of an inch and reaching rather more than half 

 way down the abdomen as two slender white bristles. The whole body is covered with 

 a fine velvety down which is most conspicuous on the forelegs and the inner side of the 

 shanks of the second pair of legs, there are also scattered over the body a few slender 

 hairs 1|- to 2 mm. in length, which are most abundant on the tail-bristles. The female 

 does not chirp and has no ovipositor. She is distinguished from the male by having no 

 notched nervure on the wing-covers and having the nervures more regularly arranged. 

 The females, too, have only 7 segments to the abdomen while the males have 8. 



The habits of this little creature aie strictly nocturnal, and it is possible after all 

 that it may^ not be so rare in Canada as is suppcsed. Prof. Oomstock says " It is not a 

 common insect, but occasionally it is found in great numbers in a limited locality. It in- 

 habits nearly the whole United States east of the great plains, from Louisiana to 

 Massachusetts." 



It lives in light moist ground, near streams, burrowing beneath the surface and sel- 

 dom coming out except at night time. Prof. J. A. Lintner .says (Rep. VI. 189U, p. 150) 

 " it burrows into moist earth to a depth of 6 or 8 inches by means of its front pair of legs, 

 which are admirably constructed for digging. Its eggs are laid in these galleries in a 

 tough sac, to the number of from two to three hundred, within a chamber scooped out 

 for the purpo.se. Here it feeds on such roots of plants as may come in its way. Occasion- 

 ally these crickets occur in large numbers, when they may become very injurious, destroy- 

 ing grass and garden vegetables, and in one instance they are said to have nearly ruined 

 a crop of potatoes. Their chirp differs from that of other crickets in being a dull, inter- 

 rupted, jarring sound, which has been compared to that of the goat-sucker. The song of 

 the male during the warm nights of early summer has been described as 'a low, continued, 

 rather pleasant trill, quite similar to that of the common toad but more shrill.' Mr. S. H. 

 Scudder has written at some length on the chirp of the Mole cricket, in Psyche,, for 

 October, 1885, 1. p. 105-6. He has written its notes and has described them as a guttural 

 sound like grilor greeu repeated in a trill ir«deSnitely, but seldom for more than two or 

 three minutes and often for a less time. It is pitched at two octaves above middle 0." 



The food of the Mole Cricket like that of the Field Cricket (Gryllus) seems to be 

 both vegetable and animal. I have never, however, been able to see my specimen feed, and 

 when worms or insects have Vjeen placed in its way it has shown fear, and either run 

 quickly backwards or burrowed down out of sight, but Brehm in '• Les Insectes " I. p, 

 448, gives the following of G. vulgaris the European speciea. The autopsy of a large num 

 ber of Gryllotalpaj revealed along the whole intestinal canal, legs and antennae, heads of 

 auts perfectly recognizable. I easily kept some in captivity for several weeks in jars filled 

 with mellow earth, and fed them with meal worms and miid worms, upon which they 

 rushed eagerly, when presented to them with forceps." The Bev. J. C Wood in " Insects 

 at Home," says they relish raw meat. 



The habits of the European Mole Cricket appear to closely resemble those of our 

 Canadian species, and the following kindly translated for me by Prof. J. A. Guignard from 

 Dr. J. Ritzema Bos's valuable treatise " Animals Injurious and Beneficial to Agriculture " 

 (Tierische Schadlinge und Nutzsing fur Ackerbau, etc.) will give a clue to some points 

 not yet observed with regard to our Northern Mole Cricket. There is a difference in the 

 nature of the egg receptacle as stated by Prof. Lintner and Dr. Ritzema Bos. 



* Less so than shown in the figure. 



