180 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



cipient nervous elements. In the other group, of which the katydids 

 may be cited as examples, the ears occur where one would scarcely think 



of looking for them — on the joints of the legs. There 

 one may see the same tympanic membrane, while care- 

 ful dissection reveals the same nervous elements on 



the inside. 



The house-cricket of Europe, so familiar in song and 

 story, is a small species which has become domesticated 

 in the eastern parts of our country. It delights in warm 

 places, and makes its home by preference in the cracks 

 of chimneys. In the fields we have numerous other 

 and larger forms lurking in the grass, and during the 

 day seeking concealment beneath boards and stones. 

 Others are more arboreal in their habits, and among 

 these is the common tree-cricket, a delicate form with 

 transparent wings of a very pale green. This form is especially noticeable 

 for its very offensive odor. The collector in handling it gets a most per- 

 sistent and disgusting smell upon his fingers. 



One form which inhabits the western territories stands a step higher 

 than the familiar cricket of our fields. It is a large, clumsy species, lack- 

 ing winers, which sometimes 



Fig. 165.— Leg of a lo- 

 cust showing the so- 

 called ear-drum T, on 

 the tibial joint. 



wings. 



Fig. 1G6. 



Western cricket or stone-cricket (Anabrus 

 simplex). 



appear in large swarms, doing 

 much damage to the crops of 

 the farmer. At the end of the 

 body is a large, sword-shaped 

 organ, the ovipositor, the func- 

 tion of which is to pierce the 

 earth and deposit the eggs at 

 some distance below the surface. 

 This form is essentially a vegetarian, and yet when hungry it will eat ani- 

 mal food, and will even devour its own kind. The farmers know this, and 

 so they dig deep trenches around their fields, which serve as traps for the 

 pests. Their advancing hordes tumble in, and, lacking wings, do not easily 

 escape. Here they soon become hungry, and then they begin to attack 

 each other, the weaker soon succumbing and furnishing food for the rest. 

 The katydids rival the crickets in popular esteem. The 'Autocrat 

 l)i it voices the feelings of all when lie writes, — 



" I love to hear thine earnest voice 

 "Wherever thon art hid, 

 Thou testy little dogmatist, 

 Thou pretty, katydid ; " 



