[53] 



Report of the State Entomologist 



149 



Gryllotalpa borealis (Burm.). 



The Mole Cricket. 

 (Ord. Orthoptera: Fam. G-ryllid^.) 



BuRMEisTER : Handbuch der Entomologie, ii, 1838, p. 740. 



The moje-cricket, which has received its name from its mole-like 

 operations within the ground, does not often come under observa- 

 tion, but as it occurs abundantly in some localities and is then the 

 occasion of quite an amount of unsuspected injury, it is desirable 

 that its habits and character should be known. 



The communication relating to it below is from*. Woodbury, N. J. : 



I herewith mail a specimen of an insect for identification. It is 

 evidently quite plentiful about here but is seldom seen. It burrows 

 in the ground, and from its hiding place makes a noise similar to the 

 note of the common cricket. It also seems perfectly at home when 

 pus in water, swimming and diving with groat facility. When alive 

 the thorax is at least one-third the length of the whole body, which 

 presents a brilliant velvety appearance throughout. Will you please 

 give name and characteristics. 



Description. 

 The northern mole-cricket, distributed over most of the United 

 States east of the Rocky mountains, " is about one 

 inch and a quarter in length, of a bay or fawn color, 

 and covered with a very short and velvet-like down. 

 The wing-covers are not half the length of the 

 abdomen, and the wings are also short, their tips, 

 when folded, extending only about one-eighth of an 

 inch beyond the wing-covers. The fore-legs are 

 admirably adapted for digging, being very short, 

 broad, and strong, and the shanks (tibiae), which 

 are excessively broad, flat, and three-sided, have 

 the lower side divided by deep notches into four 

 nnger-like projections that give to this part very 

 much the appearance and the jjower of the hand of 

 the mole." (Harris). The feet of the front pair of 

 legs are nearly concealed and quite peculiar in struc- 

 ture . They are attached to the outside of the shanks 

 and are three-jointed ; the first is large, flattened, 

 The 3lole excavated, claw-like, and curved ; the second is 

 TALPA BOEEALis. slmllar iu form, but less than one-third the size ; the 

 third is quite small, ova", and bears two terminal, slender, nearly 

 straight claws. The insect is represented in Pigure 22 in its natural 

 size. 



