ORTHOPTERA. ACIIETIDiE. ilY 



Within the secret nursery were deposited near a hundred eggs, of 

 a dirty yellow colour, and enveloped in a tough skin: the eggs lay 

 but shallow, and within the influence of the sun." The ordinary 

 number of eggs, however, is from 200 to 400 (Rosel, Latreille). The 

 3'oung, when hatched, are at first white, and resemble their parents, 

 except in the want of wings ; they keep together till after their first 

 moulting, when they disperse, and soon gain their darker colours. It 

 has been stated that they are three years in arriving at the perfect 

 state : remaining during the winter in a state of inactivity. They 

 leap but badly, and to a short distance. 



The flight of this insect is denied by some authors (Zetterstedt, 

 Philippi) ; but, according to White, it is irregular, cursii uncloso, rising 

 and falling in curves. It has, indeed, been supposed to be the cause 

 of the "Will o' the Wisp;" but Mr. Stephens states that specimens 

 which he kept showed no traces of phosphorescence, whilst the 

 effects of electro-chemical phenomena are sufficient to account for the 

 one in question. The villose coating of the thorax and wing-covers 

 appears to serve to repel the action of water. 



The mole-cricket forms the subject of G. White's ninetieth letter. 

 Rosel has also given a complete series of figures in illustration of its 

 growth (/«s. Beliist. Locust, tab. 14 and 15.). See also the 3Iag. of 

 Natural Hist, No. 8. ; Goedart, No. 1 1 9. In Ray's letters there is 

 an account of this insect in ground bordering on the sea, from a 

 Welsh writer Lhwyd, who has given the Welsh names of the insect. 



It is a remarkable circumstance in the geographical distribution of 

 insects, that this singularly-formed, and, as we may call it, anomalous 

 genus, is distributed over the globe, North and South America (Perty, 

 Del. An. art. JBras.^ ; Java, China (Donovan) ; New Holland; Guinea 

 (Afzelius), Sec. ; having species peculiar to each country. 



One of the species which inhabits the West Indies (G. didactyla 

 Latr.) has committed great ravages upon the young sugar canes in 

 that island, of which an account has been communicated to the En- 

 tomological Society, by Mr. Johnstone. ( Trans. Ent. Soc. vol. ii. p.l 1. 

 and 31.) 



Amongst the exotic insects of this family are to be mentioned 

 a singular species found in Spain and the North of Africa, Acheta 

 umbraculata, in which the head of the male is produced in front 

 into a long membranous appendage, which falls over the face like 

 a veil. (Coqueb. III. Icon. vol. i. pi. 1.; Griffith, An. K. pi. 63. f. 2.) 



