402 Dr. Kicld on the Anatomy 



four to five inches beneath the surface of tlie earth, in which 

 she deposits her eggs in one heap, to the number of three hun- 

 dred or more ; and dies within a few weeks afterwards. At 

 the end of about a month the young mole-crickets are pro- 

 duced, and appear, on a hasty survey, to bear a general re- 

 semblance to the ant. Between the time of their birth and 

 the commencement of winter the young animals cast their 

 skin three times : they lie dormant during the winter, deeper 

 in the earth in proportion to the inclemency of the season ; 

 and during this period cast their skin for the fourth time. 

 About May they leave their winter-quarters, and at this time 

 are furnished with the rudiments of their future wings, four in 

 number ; which differ remarkably in size and form and posi- 

 tion from those of the perfect insect; in which the inferior 

 wings are folded in a very curious manner, while in the im- 

 perfect insect they are always open. 



During the month of June or July they cast their skin for 

 the fifth and last time ; after which the wings acquire a per- 

 manent character, and the insect becomes capable of propa- 

 gating its species. 



Rbsel says that he himself never dissected a mole-cricket ; 

 but reports, on the authority of others, that its stomach re- 

 sembles that of the locust, represented in his ninth plate of the 

 series of that tribe of insects. I may here add, from my own 

 observation, that it very closely resembles that of the Gryllus 

 viridissimtis, and also that of a species of gryllus preserved in 

 the Ashmolean Museum, which answers to the Pneumora of 

 Lamarck : it also somewhat resembles that of a locust marked 

 614 in the Hunterian collection; and still more that of the 

 Cape grasshopper engraved in the 84th plate of the first part 

 of Sir E. Home's Comparative Anatomy. 



It appears from Riisel's account, that while very young 

 these insects are gregarious, but not afterwards : that they are 

 usually found in the vicinity of meadows and of fields of corn, 

 particularly of barley; to which they are very detrimental by 

 feeding on the roots, and thus intercepting the due nourish- 

 ment of the plants themselves. 1 have no doubt of the general 

 accuracy of the foregoing remarks of Rosel, and have little to 

 add to his account of the natural history of this insect. I 

 have hitherto met with the mole-cricket in one situation only; 

 namely, in some peat-bogs, at the distance of a few miles to 

 the west of Oxford. In the neighbourhood of these peat-bogs 

 the insects are familiarly known by the name of Croakers, from 

 the peculiar sound which they occasionally make; a sound 

 not very unlike, but more shrill and more soft than that of 

 the frog. This sound, even in the case of a single individual, 



may 



