434 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



THE FIELD CRICKETS 



This group of crickets includes Gryllus as its typical member, but 

 entomologists give first place to a smaller brown cricket called 

 Nemobius. There are numerous species of the genus, but a widely 



Fig. 21. — The striped ground cricket, Nemobius fasciatus. A, B, females. C, a male. 

 D, a female in the act of thrusting her ovipositor into the ground. E, a female with 

 ovipositor full length in, the ground and extruding an egg from its tip. F, an egg 

 in the ground 



distributed one is N. vittatus, the striped ground cricket. This is a 

 little cricket, about three-eighths of an inch in length, brownish in 

 color, with three darker stripes on the abdomen, common in fields 

 and dooryards (fig. 21). In the fall the females lay their eggs in 



