148 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



wig to one confined in a box, and found that it 

 devoured it * ; and a brood of young ones, reared by 

 Baron de Geer, ate the dead body of their own 

 mother, as well as the bodies of several of their 

 brethren which chanced to die f. It has, therefore, 

 been inferred with considerable plausibility that ear- 

 wigs in some degree make up for their ravages by 

 diminishing the number of other insects, though the 

 night habits of the earwig renders it not a little 

 difficult to ascertain this. 



A similar propensity to carnivorous habits exists 

 among locusts and crickets, whose staple food is 

 derived from vegetable substances. The house- 

 cricket (Acheta domestica, FABR.) seems in this 

 way to be a vegetable-feeder, for it thrives best in 

 the vicinity of a baker's oven, where there are 

 plenty of bread crumbs. Mouffet marvels at its 

 extreme lankness, inasmuch as there is not " found 

 in the belly any superfluity at all, although it feed on 

 the moisture of flesh and fat of broth, to which, either 

 poured out or reserved, it runs to in the night ; yea, 

 although it feed on bread, yet is the belly always 

 lank and void of superfluity J." White of Selborne, 

 again, says, " as one would suppose, from the burn- 

 ing atmosphere which they inhabit, they are a 

 thirsty race, and show a great propensity for liquids, 

 being frequently found dead in pans of water, milk, 

 broth, or the like. Whatever is moist they are fond of, 

 and, therefore, they often gnaw holes in wet woollen 

 stockings and aprons that are hung .to the fire. 

 These crickets are not only very thirsty but very 

 voracious ; for they will eat the scummings of pots, 

 yeast, bread, and kitchen offal, or sweepings of 

 almost every description ." Latreille, on the other 



* J. R. t De Geer, Mem. iii. 548. 



J Theatre of Insects, p. 996. 



Nat. Hist, of Selborne. 



