OY 
NOTES UPON GRYLLUS AND CECANTHUS. 
By Jerome McNemt1, Moline, Ill. 
The species of Gryide are so variable that it is practically impossible 
to say at present how many good species there are in the United States 
or even what constitutes a single good specific character. ‘The result is 
that a great many more species than exist have been described (Mr. 
Walker, for example, is credited by Saussure with having added eight 
synonyms to G, assimilis Fabr.,) and the habits of distinct but similar 
species have been confused. The latter conclusion bas been furced upon 
me after several years observation and I venture to offer my solution of 
the difficulty in this paper. Ido not hesitate to say however that I do 
not feel at all sure of the correctness of my position but if I succeed in 
calling the attention of other observers to this very interesting group, I 
shall be well paid for my trouble. 
' In speaking of the habits of these Orthoptera, a late writer on the 
subject, Mr. Lawrence Bruner, says: ‘‘Usually most of our North 
American Grydf live singly or in pairs in burrows which they dig for 
themselves. These are used as retreats during the day-time and serve 
as shelter during the ordinary inclemencies of the weather. These 
. burrows are generally forsaken about midsummer for some sort of above 
ground shelter. From this time on until Fall they appear to be more 
social and live in colonies under various sorts of rubbish. Grain-shocks 
are a favorite haunt for them and since twine has been used for binding, 
the crickets have been quite troublesome by cutting the bands, During 
the late Summer and Fall the females commence preparations for the 
continuance of their kind, by thrusting their long slender ovipositors into 
the loose soil and dropping their eggs. These sometimes hatch the same 
year but as a rule lie over until the fullowing Spring. The young gen- 
erally live above ground where they hide among fallen leaves, grasses 
and other debris, though sometimes they also creep into chinks and 
crevices in the earth,” If J am not mistaken the description just quoted 
applies to no single species. The burrow-making species is G. pennsyl- 
wanicus Burm., or, if this name is as Saussure believes only a synonym, 
G. luctuosus Serv. The social crickets are G. abébreviatus Serv., and 
#eglectus Scud., which is probably a variety of Serville’s species. Briefly 
recounted, the life history of abdreviatus is as follows: The eggs hatch 
in this latitude in July, and the first adults appear as early as the second 
week in August. During every stage of life they are social, feeding to- 
gether, seeking shelter in company, and when egg-laying times comes, 
in October, the females collect by hundreds in some suitable locality, an 
abandoned or little used roadway suits them well, where they deposit 
their eggs, each female laying several hundred, in an irregular mass, 
After this duty is performed their business on this planet seems to be 
finished and they succumb to the increasing cold, none surving the 
Winter. The eggs do not hatch until the following July or if in rare 
cases they do hatch, the larve probably perish with cold. In Florida 
Gryllus luctuosus Serv., attains its growth in December. Grydlus penn- 
sylvanicus, probably the short-winged form of /ucfuosus, is, so far as I 
know, not found in the Southern States, and in the Middle States it does 
not have time to complete its metamorphoses in the Fall, and conse- 
