446 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



serted at the end of a canal, in which they are capable of being lodged. 

 With this pair of legs, admirably adapted to the purpose, and pointing 

 somewhat obliquely outwards, like the hands of the mole (^^. Si. 14., 

 larva, resembling the perfect insect, except in wanting wings), it 

 burrows under ground like the mole, raising a ridge as it proceeds, but 

 seldom throwing up hillocks ; its muscular power being so great that, 

 according to Rosel, it commonly employs a force equal to the coun- 

 terpoise of two or three pounds. They infest gardens by the sides of 

 canals, and moist meadows, occasioning, according to White, " great 

 damage among the plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of 

 cabbages, young legumes, and flowers." Latreille, indeed, says, " Elle 

 coupe ou detache les racines des plantes, mais moins pour s'en nourrir 

 que pour se faire un passage ; car elle vit a ce qu'il parait d'in- 

 sectes ou de vers;" and M. Lefeburier has published a series of 

 observations, with the view of proving that it is upon subterraneous 

 insects, and not upon plants, that the mole-cricket feeds. (Nbuv. 

 Coins cf Agricidt. 2d edit. tom. v. p. 163.) 



The observations of M. Turpin, however, certainly prove that these 

 insects are at times herbivorous, although, for want of food, they will 

 destroy and devour each other. {Revue Agricole, No. 2. 1829, p. 65.), 

 and Audouin and BruUe, tom. ix. p. 187.) Dr. Kidd, also, states 

 that " the digestive organs of this insect more closely resemble those 

 of a granivorous bird than of any other animal;" and that of all kinds 

 of vegetable food they prefetred the potato, while cucumber they 

 hardly touched ; but if raw meat were offered to them, they attacked it, 

 in preference to any thing else, with great greediness; and that when 

 kept, even a short time without food, they attacked each other, and 

 the victor devoured the vanquished. He also states that he re- 

 peatedly found the horny and indigestible parts of insects within 

 their stomach, upon dissection. (P/wY.TIf/a^. Dec. 1825, p.403.) Gould 

 also states that he fed a mole-cricket for several months on ants. 

 They stridulate with a dull, low, jarring note, continued for a long 

 time without interruption, not unlike the chattering of the goat- 

 sucker. 



The females deposit their eggs in the ground. White relates that 

 a gardener, on paring off a piece of turf on the side of a canal, ex- 

 posed one of the nests, which he thus describes: "There were many 

 caverns and winding passages leading to a kind of chamber, neatly 

 smoothed and rounded, and about the size of a moderate snuff-box. 



