loS ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



palmated legs to prevent them being injured when 

 the cricket is digging. Armed with its spade- 

 like apparatus, it burrows out large excavations 

 in the ground to a greater or less depth, vertical 

 shafts with long horizontal galleries abutting. As a 

 rule, it prefers loose and made soils, as in kitchen and 

 nursery gardens and vineries. It cuts and eats 

 through everything that comes in its way, so that its 

 ramifications are a grievous source of mischief among 

 young plants and flowers ; in fields they may be of 

 certain use, the tunnels forming a kind of sub-soil 

 drainage. Like the mole, it reserves a distinct 

 chamber apart from its other galleries for its young. 

 Formed at no great distance below the surface, this 

 room is about three inches in diameter, and nearly 

 one inch high, very neatly made, and its walls are 

 carefully levelled and hardened to resist the action of 

 the rain. Here the eggs are laid secure from all 

 ordinary foes, and no doubt their hatching is effected 

 by the sun's warmth, which will penetrate to the 

 slight depth at which they lie. Secluded in its home, 

 the insect passes its life in a state of absolute 

 solitude, issuing forth at nightfall, when alone it dis- 

 ports itself on its wings. It never soars to any great 

 height. 



In character and habits Ac/ieta campestris is 

 very similar. At night it comes out and sits 

 just within the entrance to its hole, chirping 

 away at its monotonous song for hours together. 

 Being wary and timid, it takes alarm at the least 

 noise, and retreats inside with precipitation. But it 

 is combative, and may be drawn out by inserting 



