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127.—Nores on tHe Hovse-crickxer (AcHETA DOMESTICA). 
By C. H. Goopman. 
(Read December 17th, 1895.) 
Soon after going to reside at my present house in Warlingham, 
I became aware, by their obtrusive noise, that house-crickets were 
also inmates of my dwelling; and, as dead ones were often swept 
up and brought me for examination, my attention was naturally 
turned to these insects. I soon found that there were many 
points on which I could get no information from books, and on 
- which no one I consulted seemed sure. The following notes and 
illustrations may therefore be of interest, and I hope will elicit 
further information from those better qualified to speak than 
myself, as they are very defective in many particulars. 
Owing to the unnatural lives led in our kitchens, the date of 
egg-laying and hatching seems independent of seasons ; at all 
events young ones are found at most times. I hoped, by keeping 
them in a box and feeding them, to be able to study their meta- 
morphoses. So far, however, I have been quite unsuccessful, 
They are nocturnal in their habits and are gregarious, and so 
pugnacious that they will attack and eat cockroaches. 
The eggs are white and of an elongated oval shape, measuring 
91 mill. in length. The moults are probably more frequent when 
young than later on, and they show that the whole skin is cast 
off, including the cornea of the eyes, the jaws, and antenne ; in 
the thorax the entire legs down to the claws. The prothorax 
does not seem to be split by the emergence of the insect. The 
abdomen would probably include the set, but this portion was 
lost in the example I examined. 
Antenne.—The most noticeable feature of the antenne in the 
living insect is their extreme mobility, their supple and flexible 
character being exhibited in every movement. On examining 
one of these long filiform organs it is seen to be composed of 
tube-like joints, 200 in number, of varying length, and clothed 
with fine hairs directed towards the tip, and with a crown of 
them round the apex of each joint. At intervals along the 
antenna will be found small pits or circular depressions, which 
are probably organs of smell. In the illustration they are 
magnified 310 diameters. A transverse section of the antenna 
shows that it is hollow, and lined with a delicate membrane. 
The basal joint differs entirely from the others, being large and 
round with flattened sides, and carries on each side at the upper 
margin a large black bristle in a sloping direction. These I take 
to be tactile hairs. If we move the antenna of a recently-killed 
