ACHETIDjE. 245 



also, Mr. Westwood informs us, in several other 

 allied undescribed species in his collection. The 

 genus, in fact, seems to contain several groups 

 quite as distinct as the section formed by Latreille 

 (Gen. Crust. $c. III. 99,) for the reception of 

 Acheta Italica, and of which Serville has composed 

 the genus CEcanthus. A. Arachnoides may be re- 

 garded as forming a connecting link between Acheta 

 and Phalangopsis of the last named author. 



Typical examples of this family are to be found in 

 the well known domestic cricket, field cricket, and 

 mole cricket. The two former are referred to the 

 genus ACHETA, which, besides them, comprehends 

 two other British species. The history of the do- 

 mestic cricket has been so often given, that it is un- 

 necessary to repeat the particulars in this place. It 

 occurs in most of the other countries of Europe, as 

 well as in Britain. Its song, if such it may be called, 

 (for which it is so highly valued in Spain, that the 

 peasantry sometimes hang it in little cages by the 

 fireside,) is produced by a very simple piece of me- 

 chanism, and is peculiar to the male. It consists of 

 a kind of rounded areolet, tense and shining, situate 

 at the base of each of the tegmina ; the latter over- 

 lap each other, the right being uppermost, and the 

 left beneath it. The nervures of their dorsal portion 

 are thicker, and form larger cells in the male than 

 in the female.* When the former wishes to produce 

 the sound, he elevates the hinder part of the teg- 

 mina in such a manner as to form an acute angle 



* See PI. VI. figs. 8 and 9 , the former is a dorsal view of 

 the male cricket, the latter an under side view of the female. 



