130 INSECTS ORTHOPTERA DIAGRAM 6. 



and which it uses in exactly the same manner. With these legs 

 the strength of which may be felt by holding a mole-cricket in 

 the hand they dig galleries tinder the soil, and eat all the roots 

 with which they meet, sometimes producing great ravages in 

 this manner. 



The House-cricket lives in houses, near the fire-place ; and the 

 field-cricket in dry, grassy places. They are nocturnal animals, 

 and their music is chiefly to be heard in the evening. They 

 produce it by passing their long hind legs over their elytra, which 

 then vibrate like the cords of a violin. Crickets and grasshoppers 

 produce their music in a similar manner. 



The Locusts, and the large Green Grasshopper, are the largest 

 British Orthoptera. The latter is not uncommon in England, 

 and the former, though not indigenous, are frequently met with 

 in some years in different parts of the country, having flown 

 over from the Continent, and in some cases it is supposed even 

 from Africa. Like the crickets, their hind legs are very large, 

 and fitted for jumping. The mischief which they cause in 



Blue-Minged Grasshopper. 



Britain is happily unimportant ; but in many countries of Asia 

 and Africa they frequently appear in immense swarms. Some- 

 times vast swarms of several miles in length and breadth appear 



