CRICKET. 



CRICKET. 



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-cavers. The fore-legs 

 are admirably adapted for^ digging, being very 

 short, broad, and strong; and the shanks, which 

 are excessively broad, flat, and three-sided, 

 have the lower side divided by deep notches 

 into four finger-like projections, that give to 

 this part very much the appearance and the 

 power of the hand of a mole. From this simi- 

 larity in structure, and from its burrowing 

 habits, the insect receives its scientific name 

 of Grylfatalpa, derived from Gryllus, the ancient 

 name of the cricket, and Talpa, a mole ; and 

 our common species has the additional name 

 of brcvipennis, or short-winged, to distinguish it 

 from the European species, which has much 

 longer wings. Mole-crickets avoid the light of 

 day, and are active chiefly during the night. 

 They live on the tender roots of plants, and in 

 Europe, where they infest moist gardens and 

 meadows, they often do great injury by burrow- 

 ing under the turf, and cutting off the roots of 

 the grass, and by undermining and destroying, 

 in this way, sometimes whole beds of cabbages, 

 beans, and flowers. In the West Indies, ex- 

 tensive ravages have been committed in the 

 plantations of the sugar-cane by another spe- 

 cies, Gryllotalpa didactyla, which has only two 

 finger-like projections on the shin. The mole- 

 cricket of Europe lays from two to three hun- 

 dred eggs, and the young do not come to matu- 

 rity till the third year; circumstances both 

 contributing greatly to increase the ravages of 

 these insects. It is observed that, in proportion 

 as cultivation is extended, destructive insects 

 multiply, and their depredations become more 

 serious. We may, therefore, in process of 

 time, find mole-crickets in this country quite 

 as much a pest as they are in Europe, although 

 their depredations have hitherto been limited 

 to so small an extent as not to have attracted 

 much notice. Should it hereafter become ne- 

 cessary to employ means for checking them, 

 poisoning might be tried, such as placing, in 

 the vicinity of their burrows, grated carrots or 

 potatoes mixed with arsenic. It is well known 

 that swine will eat almost all kinds of insects, 

 and that they are very sagacious in rooting 

 them out of the ground. They might, therefore, 

 be employed with advantage to destroy these 

 and other noxious insects, if other means 

 should fail. 



"Crickets are, in great measure, nocturnal 

 and solitary insects, concealing themselves by 

 day, and coming from their retreats to seek 

 their food and their mates by night. There are 

 some species, however, which differ greatly 

 from the others in their social habits. These 

 are not unfrequently seen during the day-time 

 in great numbers, in paths and by the road-side; 

 but the other kinds rarely expose themselves 

 to the light of day, and their music is heard 

 only at night. With crickets, as with grass- 

 hoppers, locusts, and harvest-flies, the males 

 only are musical ; for the females are not pro- 

 vided with the instruments from which the 

 sounds emitted by these different insects are 

 produced. In the male cricket these make a 



I part of the wing-covers, the horizontal and 

 overlapping portion of which, near the thorax 

 is convex, and marked with large, strong, and 

 irregularly curved veins. When the cricket 

 shrills (we cannot say sings, for he has no 

 vocal organs), he raises the wing-covers a little, 

 and shuffles them together lengthwise, so that 

 the projecting veins of one are made to grate 

 against those of the other. The English name 

 cricket, and the French cri-m, are evidently 

 derived from the creaking sounds of these in- 

 sects. Mr. White, of Selborne, says that 'the 

 shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and 

 striduldus,yet marvellously delights some hear- 

 ers, filling their minds with a train of summer 

 ideas of everything that is rural, verdurous, and 

 joyous;' sentiments in which few persons, if 

 any, in America will participate; for with us 

 the creaking of crickets does not begin till 

 summer is gone, and the continued and mono- 

 tonous sounds, which they keep up luring the 

 whole night, so long as autumn lasts, are both 

 wearisome and sad. Where crickets abound, 

 they do great injury to vegetation, eating the 

 most tender parts of plants, and even devour- 

 ing fruits and roots, whenever they can get 

 them. Melons, squashes, and even potatoes 

 are often eaten by them, and the quantity of 

 grass that they destroy must be great, from the 

 immense numbers of these insects which are 

 sometimes seen in our meadows and fields. 

 They may be poisoned in the same way as 

 mole-crickets. Crickets are not entirely con- 

 fined to a vegetable diet; they devour other 

 insects whenever they meet with and can over- 

 power them. They deposit their eggs, which 

 are numerous, in the ground, making holes for 

 their reception with their long, spear-pointed 

 piercers. The eggs are laid in the autumn, 

 and do not appear to be hatched till the ensu- 

 ing summer. The old insects, for the most 

 part, die on the approach of cold weather ; but 

 a few survive the winter, by sheltering them- 

 selves under stones, or in holes secure from 

 the access of water. 



"The scientific name of the genus that in- 

 cludes the cricket is Acheta, and our common, 

 species is the Achtta abbreviate!, so named from 

 the shortness of its wings, which do not extend 

 beyond the wing-covers. It is about three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, of a black co- 

 lour, with a brownish tinge at the base of the 

 wing-covers, and a pale line on each side above 

 the deflexed border. The pale line is most dis- 

 tinct in the female, and is oftentimes entirely 

 wanting in the male. 



" We have another species with very short 

 or abortive wings ; it is entirely of a black co- 

 lour, and measures six-tenths of an inch in 

 length from the head to the end of the body. It 

 may be called Jlcheta nigra, the black cricket. 



" A third species, differing from these two in 

 being entirely destitute of wings, and in having 

 the wing-covers proportionally much shorter, 

 and the last joint of the feelers (palpi") almost 

 twice the length of the preceding joint, is fur- 

 thermore distinguished from them by its greatly 

 inferior size, and its different colouring. It 

 measures from three to above four-tenths of an 

 inch in length, and varies in colour from dusky 

 brown to rusty black, the wing-covers and hind- 

 2 H 2 365 



