ORTNOPTERA. 



295 



to the house in which it is heard. Formerly this singular prejudice 

 was much deeper-rooted than it is at present. The song of the 

 I cricket has merely the object of calling the female. The Wood 

 Cricket {Gryllus \^Nt'inohins\ sylvestris) is much smaller than the 

 above, and is met with in great numbers in the woods, where its 

 leaps sometimes produce the noise of drops of rain. 



Fig- 305.— Mole Cricket {Gryllo-tnlpn vvlgaris). 



The female crickets have a long egg-layer, or ovipositor, with 

 'which they deposit their eggs, of which each one lays, towards the 

 middle of the summer, about three hundred, in the cracks and 

 crevices of the soil. The larvae pass the winter in that state, and 

 do not become pupae and perfect insects till the following summer, 



Mouffet relates that, in certain regions of Africa, the crickets are 

 objects of commerce. They are brought up in little cages, as we do 

 Canary birds, and sold to the inhabitants, who like to hear their 

 amorous chant. It is said that some tribes eat these insects. In 

 France they are sought after as baits for fishing, and are used also in 



