THE ALLIES OF THE EED-LEGGED LOCUST 19 



is made by rubbing the base of one of the first pair of wings 

 against the other anterior wing. An auditory apparatus is 

 found in both sexes at the base of the front tibise. 



Some of the grasshoppers have taken to a cave life, and are 

 blind and wingless. Color has not been developed, and the 

 insects have the white appearance of plants grown in the 

 dark. The antennae and legs are elongated to an enormous 

 extent, and must be useful in an environment where much 

 depends on the sense of touch. 



Crickets. The crickets (Fig. 9, A) resemble the grasshop- 

 pers in the possession of long, slender antennae, but differ 

 from them in having the anterior wings overlapping, instead 

 of meeting in a ridge along the median line of the back. 

 They are widely distributed over the earth, and are, as a 



FIG. 9. Cricket 



A, female, natural size. J5, under surface of right wing of male, enlarged : 1, rasp ; 

 2, position of scraper, only the scraper of left wing used ; 3, attachment of wing 



rule, nocturnal in their habits. They feed mostly on vege- 

 table matter. Our native species live in the fields beneath 

 sticks and stones. Of late years the house-cricket of Europe 

 (Gryl'lus domes' tieus) has become common in the cities of the 

 eastern United States. This is the species famous in song 

 and story. Its well-known chirp is made only by the male. 

 The principal vein on the ventral surface of each anterior wing 

 is thickened into a rasp-like structure (Fig. 9, B, 1) ; on another 



