1826.] Philo^phicalTransactionsfotl825,Part 11, 203 



form, we are disposed to place Dr. Kidd's paper on an extraor- 

 dinary and interesting species of the Annulosa, in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions now before us. Without further preface, 

 then, we proceed to give the results of Dr. Kidd's researches ; 

 and in order to make room for the copious extracts their interest 

 demands, giving the descriptions of the less important organs in 

 a compressed form. 



After some general remarks on the natural history, habits, and 

 food, of the Mole Cricket,* the author describes, in the follow- 

 ing terms, its " external characters." 



" Destined like the common mole to live beneath the surface 

 of the earth, and to excavate a passage for itself through the soil 

 which it inhabits, the gryllotalpa is furnished like the mole, with 

 limbs particularly calculated for burrowing ; with a skin which 

 effectually prevents the adhesion of the moist earth through 

 which it moves ; and with exactly that form and structure of 

 body, by which it is enabled to penetrate the opposing medium 

 with the greatest ease. At the same time, in order to prevent 

 the necessity of its excavating a track so wide as to admit of the 

 body being turned round in case of a desire to retreat, it is endued 

 with the power of moving as easily in a retrograde as in a pro- 

 gressive direction ; and, apparently to perform the office of 

 antennae, which warn the insect of approaching danger in its 

 progressive motions, it has two appendages, which might not 

 improperly be called caudal antennae, evidently calculated to 

 serve a similar purpose during its retrogade motions; particularly 

 as they are furnished with very large nerves. The indifference 

 with which the insect is disposed to move in either direction is 

 manifested by the following experiment : if you touch it towards 

 the head, it retreats ; if towards the other extremity of the body, 

 it advances. 



" The general colour of the animal is such as indirectly to 

 serve as a protection to it, being nearly of the same hue as the 

 vegetable mould in which it lives ; so that it is not very readily 

 distinguished upon being first turned up to view ; and its safety 

 seems to be still farther insured by the appearance of death, 



• This appropriate name, we may observe, seems to have been first bestowed upon 

 the animal, by our old entomologist Mouftet ; for in his Inseclorum sive Minimoium 

 ylnimalium TItealrum, which was published at London in 1 634, and from which, though 

 the earliest work expressly devoted to insects, valuable information may sometimes be 

 derived, we find the subjoined remarks commencing " Cap. xxiv. De Gryllotalpa.'''' 



" Ijiccat hie qua;so nobis prae nominuminopiao!/o,ua'o7ro/»7v. 



" Bestiolam quam expressimus, Cordi Sphondylis, Dodona;i vera Buprestis est : per- 

 peram iiterque nominant ct nuUojure. Sphondylis enim alas nonhabet, hoc Insectum 

 video alatum. Buprestis Cantharidi similis apud omnes dicitur ; hoc vero animal nee 

 figura, nee colore, nee magnitudine quicquam co accedit ; ut taceam elytroruni hie ab- 

 nentiam, quibus Cantharides carere nemo sanus contenderit. Gryllum dicinms, quia 

 cundcm cum Gryllo stridorem nocte appctente facit. Talpam, quia terram continue 

 fodit. Belgis fVeemol, An^Msfcnhricliet, evec/nirre, atq. etiam Churrworme dicitur." 

 The name appears to have been speedily adopted into general use; for in the Musa'um 

 jTrarfcjcant/um, published only twenty-two years afterwards, in 1656, among the in«ec<a 

 fs mentioned, " Gritlo talpa tanli-graduB." 



