378 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



This species occurs in both brachypterous and apterous individuals 

 so far as the hind pair is concerned. When provided with wings 

 these organs nearly always are fully developed and lengthily caudate. 

 Possibly all are winged at first, but lose them later in combat or by 

 accident. These crickets dwell in perpendicular burrows of several 

 inches in depth which they evidently construct for themselves. At 

 Carcarana, Argentina, they were collected just before dusk when the 

 males were readily located by the loud and continued shrilling they 

 made as they sat at the mouths of their burrows. 



Genus Acheta Fabricius. 



Gryllns Acheta Linn^us, Syst. Nat. (ed. X), I (1758), p. 428. 

 Acheta Fabricius, Syst. Ent. (1775), p. 279; Kirby, Syn. Cat. Orth., II (1906). 

 p. 24. 

 For additional synonymy see Kirby, /. c. 



While the present genus belongs to the Old World, at least one of the 

 species, A. bimacidata DeGeer, is known to be almost or quite generally 

 distributed over the entire oriental region as well as in portions of the 

 New World, whither it has been carried by commerce. No repre- 

 sentatives of this insect are at hand, but the present writer remembers 

 having seen specimens in one or more South American collections, 

 which were labeled as coming from the immediate vicinity. As 

 memory serves, the collections containing such specimens were in Rio 

 de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. 



Ctcuus Gryllus Linnaeus. 



Gryllus Linn^us, Syst. Nat., Ed. X (1758), p. 425; and most entomological writers 

 since, especially Saussure, Miss. Mex., Orth. (1874), P- 39i ; Mem. Soc. Geneve. 

 XXV (1877), P- 144 for S. American lorm?. 



Acheta Fabricius (in part), Syst. Ent. (1775), p. 279. 



Representati\es of the genus Gryllus occur throughout the tem- 

 perate and tropical countries and islands of the earth. According to 

 Kirby (see Syn. Cat. Orth. II, pp. 27-38) one hundred and ten distinct 

 species are recognized. These insects are usually moderately large 

 and dark-colored. They li\c for the most part on the ground, in 

 which they burrow, or crawl beneath stones, sticks, pieces of bark, 

 boards, chips, and other protecting objects. Usually these insects live 

 in pairs, but sometimes singly, or at other times socially. A few of the 

 North American forms have been considered agricultural pests, since 



