PLANTS AND ANIMALS IN WINTER. 825 



being often frozen solid during cold weather, but 

 thawing out as healthy as ever when the temperature 

 rises. Retiring beneath the loose-fitting bark of 

 hickory or maple trees, a number of the smaller 

 tube-weaving spiders construct about themselves a 

 protecting web of many layers of the finest silk. 

 Within this snug retreat they lie from November 

 until April -a handsome, small, black fellow, with 

 green jaws and two orange spots on his abdomen, 

 being the most common species found motionless 

 within this seeming shroud of silk on a day in mid- 

 winter. 



In any Northern State as many as four hundred* 

 different kinds of the six-footed or true insects, in the 

 winged or adult stage, may be taken in winter by any 

 one who is so disposed, and knows where to search 

 for them. Among the Orthoptera, the "grouse grass- 

 hoppers" live during the cold season beneath the 

 loose bark of logs, or beneath the bottom rails of the 

 old Virginia worm fences. From these retreats every 

 warm, sunny day tempts them forth in numbers. On 

 such occasions the earth seems to s\varm with them, 

 as they leap before the intruder, their hard bodies 

 striking the dead leaves with a sound similar to that 

 produced by falling hail. The common field cricket 

 belongs also to the Orthoptera, and the young of vari- 

 ous sizes winter under rails and logs, bidding defiance 

 to Jack Frost from w r ithin a little burrow or pit 

 beneath the protecting shelter. 



*See Psyche, 1895 and 1896, for notes on 286 species of Coleoptera, 64 of 

 Hemiptera and 18 of Orthoptera taken by the writer in Vigo county, Indiana, 

 during the winter months. 



