FIELD CKICKET. 24-3 



observed that Crickets not only appear suddenly in places 

 where tliey had not been seen before, but disappear as suddenly 

 from places where they had been plentiful. 



In this insect, the ovipositor is long, straight, slender, and 

 spear-shaped, being armed at the end with a sharp and en- 

 larged tip, which looks just like the head of the spear, the 

 shaft being represented by the body of the ovipositor. On a 

 closer examination, this apparatus is seen to be double, and, 

 with a little pains, the two halves may be separated from each 

 other. Each half is then seen to be hollow, a deep groove 

 running throughout its whole length, so that when they are 

 placed in apposition, they form a tube along which the egg- 

 can pass. 



There is, however, a further provision for the deposition of 

 the eggs. Not only is the shaft of the ovipositor hollow, but 

 the enlarged tip is likewise hollow, each half looking very 

 much like the bowl of a spoon. A still closer examination 

 reveals another fact, namely, that each of these spoon-like 

 parts is itself double, being cleft along the centre, and capable 

 of being opened by pressure from within. The reader will 

 now see how beautiful and delicate is this contrivance, which 

 enables the mother insect to introduce her egg into a very 

 small crevice, and, while she is doing so, to hold it with a 

 grasp — not as of the two unyielding spoons, but of four elastic 

 springs, which can be relaxed, contracted, or entirely loosened, 

 at the will of the insect. 



Crickets are wonderfully quarrelsome animals ; so quarrel- 

 some, indeed, that if they are kept in confinement, they must 

 be kept separately. Of a number which I placed under a glass 

 cover, for the purpose of studying them, not one escaped un- 

 hurt. Some had their limbs torn from their bodies, some had 

 their legs bitten completely through, all were more or less 

 sliorn of their antennae, and several were killed outright. 

 Whether they fight in this manner when at liberty, I cannot 

 say ; but they invariably fight when placed in confinement, 

 males and. females being alike combative, and alike suffering 

 the penalties of warfare. 



On Plate VII. Fig. 6, is shown the Field Ckicket {Acheta 

 campestris), an insect stronger, larger, and burlier than its 



E 2 



