154 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



The hind wings of the cricket are exceedingly delicate, 

 and are each strengthened by about fifty nervures, radiat- 

 ing fan wise from the base. As about half these nervures 

 are weaker than the rest, the weak ones being placed 

 alternately with the strong ones, the whole wing can be 

 folded up lengthwise like a fan, and this accounts for its 

 pointed form as it protrudes from beneath the upper 

 wing. It is this peculiar method of straight, longi- 

 tudinal folding that has caused the name Orthoptera 

 (straight-winged} to be given to the order. 



Of course the power of chirping implies the power of 

 hearing. It is only natural to suppose that the male 

 crickets would long ago have abandoned the habit of 

 serenading (if, indeed, they had ever perfected it) if their 

 mates had not been able to recognise their attentions. 

 It is rather curious, however, that this insect, notwith- 

 standing its living in our houses, and the considerable 

 curtailment of its field of quest for partners consequent 

 thereupon, should have preserved almost as strongly as 

 its out-door relative this power of chirping. One cannot 

 help feeling a suspicion that, if this vigorous minstrelsy 

 be merely of an amatory nature, either the gentler sex 

 in the cricket must have become extremely coy, or else 

 there is a vast deal of wasted energy on the part of their 

 swains. However that may be, as the power of recog- 

 nition of this call seems as though it must be an impor- 

 tant matter in cricket economy, we naturally look about 

 for some special apparatus suitable for the detection of 

 sounds, of a much more indubitable character than is 

 generally met with in insects. And the search is soon 

 rewarded. It is only necessary to examine the tibia, or 

 shank, of the fore legs, just below its junction with the 

 thigh, to find an organ, to which it is difficult to assign 

 any other function. Here, on the flattened outer edge, 



