172 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



wme-covers 



both long-horns and short-horns. The most conspicuous of these differences is seen 

 in the form of the upper side. In all the grasshoppers this is keeled or ridged, but 

 in the crickets i it is flat ; and this flatness is not disguised by the wings and wing- 

 covers, for they lie flat upon it. A small point here accentuates their distinction 

 from other families ; the right wing-cover overlaps the left, which is the opposite 

 of the fashion prevailing throughout other families of the order. The hind-body 

 ends in two long, slender tails like antennae, which are called cerci, and believed, 

 in many cases, to act as antennae. The sensitiveness of these cerci is probably of 

 great importance to Insects habitually taking refuge in holes and crannies, as 

 affording them information as to possible dangers from behind. Another point 

 in which the\' differ from the long-horns, and agree with the short-horns, is that 

 the foot consists of three joints in most of the crickets — the long-horns have four- 

 jointed feet. The tips of the wings are rolled up, and as they project beyond the 

 and are longer than the body, they present the appearance of an 



additional pair of cerci. 



We have said that the 

 method of sound-produc- 

 tion is similar to that of 

 the long-horns ; but even 

 here there is a difference. 

 In both families the chirp 

 is produced by the wing- 

 covers, but in the crickets 

 both of these are provided 

 with a well-formed file 

 which crosses one-half of 

 the breadth of the wing- 

 cover. Bv the partial 

 opening and closing of the 

 wing-covers the file of one 

 is drawn over the nervures 

 of the other, and the sound thus produced is intensified by a tense, clear area like 

 a drumhead behind the file, and occupying the centre of the wing-cover. 



There is a pair of ears in each front leg, of which that on the hinder or outer 

 side of the leg is larger than the one on the front or inner side. 



The best-known member of the cricket familv, of course, is the house-cricket'^ — 

 Milton's " Cricket on the Hearth." In one sense it is the most remarkable of the 

 crickets, for it is an example of an Insect that has voluntarily given up an outdoor 

 life, and taken up its abode in human dwellings. Where was the original home of 

 the house-cricket no one knows. It is comnujn as a household Insect all over 

 Europe, and indeed over a considerable part of the Old World, from which it appears 

 to have made its way with human colonists to North America ; but it is not known 

 anywhere to lead an outdoor life. Occasionally it may.be heard, and sometimes 

 seen, out of doors in the warmer days of summer, but then alwaj's in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of a house ; and it may be surmised that it is then in the act of 



^ Ciryllidaj. " Gryllus domesticus. 



The Cricket of the Hearth. 



The merry little chirruper that makes its home in defective brick-work around the kitchen 

 fireplace, is shown in walking attitude and just alighted from its flying leap. The 

 instrument by which it effects its shrill call is shown in other photographs. 



