144 SALTATORIA. ACHETID^E OR CRICKETS. 



allied to the well-known Crickets, Grasshoppers, Locusts, &c. ; 

 all of them being adapted, by the peculiar conformation of their 

 hind-legs, to move by leaping rather than by running. Besides 

 this peculiarity, they all agree in depositing their eggs in the 

 ground : and they generally effect this by means of a horny 

 tubular prolongation of the last segment of the body, or oviposi- 

 tor, such as we shall meet with in the order Hymenoptera. 

 There are three distinct groups in this section ; namely, the 

 ACHETIDJE or Crickets; the GRYLLID^E or Grasshoppers; and the 

 LOCUSTIDJE or Locusts; but the differences between them are 

 scarcely such, as to entitle them to rank as distinct families. 

 The Crickets are essentially inhabitants of the ground, in which 

 many of them burrow, both in the larva and perfect states ; few 

 of them have any powers of active flight. One of the most im- 

 portant species of this family is the Gryllotalpa vulgaris, or 

 Mole-Cricket (Fig. 300), which derives its name from the pecu- 

 liar similarity in its anterior extremities, and from the resem- 

 blance in its habits, to those of the Mole. It is about an inch 

 and a half long, and of a brown colour. In making its burrows, 

 it cuts through or detaches all the roots of plants which it en- 

 counters ; but it does not do this so much for the purpose of 

 feeding upon them, as to make a passage in search of insects and 

 worms. The female forms, in June and July, at the depth of 

 about six inches from the surface, a rounded cell, smooth within, 

 and resembling with its gallery a bottle with a long bent neck ; 

 in this she deposits from 200 to 400 eggs ; and the young remain 

 in society for some time after they are hatched. The larvae are 

 at first white ; but in other respects they resemble their parents, 

 except in their smaller size and their want of wings ; after their 

 first moulting, they disperse, and soon gain their darker colours; 

 and they are about three years before they arrive at the perfect 

 state. Their wings are so little developed, that the possibility 

 of the flight of the inseots has been denied. It is remarkable 

 that the various species of this singular genus should be spread 

 over the whole globe. The House- Cricket (Fig. 367) is too well 

 known to require particular description; it takes up its abode 

 in the neighbourhood of the fire-places of rooms on the ground- 



