150 FORTT-THIRD REPORT ON THE StATE MuSEUM. [54] 



Habits. 

 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 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 purpose. 

 Here it feeds on such roots of plants as may come within its way. 

 Occasionally these crickets occur in large numbers, when they may 

 become very injurious, destroying grass and garden vegetables, and 

 in one instance they are said to have nearly ruined an entire crop of 

 potatoes. They are nocturnal in their habits, sometimes leaving their 

 burrows at night to come abrofid, and, in the larger- winged species, 

 disport in short flights. They are believed to partake occasionally of 

 animal food, as of worms and the smaller insects and even of one 

 another, if pressed by hunger. The female is said, at times, to consume 

 large numbers of her young. Their chirp differs from that of other 

 crickets, in being a dull, interrupted, 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 sim- 

 ilar to that of the common toad, but more shrill." Mr. S. H. Scudder 

 has written at some length of " The Chirp of the Mole-cricket," in 

 Psyche, for October, 1875, i, p. 105-6. He has written its notes, and 

 has described them as " a gutteral sound, like griX or greeu repeated 

 in a trill indefinitely, but seldom for more than two or three minutes, 

 and often for a less time. It is pitched at two octaves above middle 

 C. * * * The note sounds exceedingly like the distant 

 croak of toads {Bufo) at spawning season, but is somewhat fuller." 

 The ability and readiness of our species to swim in water has not, 

 so far as I know, been recorded of it. It has also the ability of 

 moving backwards in its burrows with great facility, which must be 

 a great convenience to it in constructing and in traversing its narrow 



galleries. 



Remedies. 



In Europe, where the species are far greater pests than in this 

 country, to the extent that they are regarded as " the greatest enemy 

 the gardener has to contend with " in certain localities in Germany 

 and elsewhere, various means have been recommended for the sup- 

 pression of their ravages, among which are the following: Pouring 

 water into their burrows first and then a few drops of oil, to 

 stop their respiration; burying small .garden pots containing a 

 little oil of turpentine, covered so as to keep out the earth, to 



