CRICKE TS — THRIPS — SAND- CENTIPEDE 



2 55 



beeches. These crickets, which betray their presence by biting off the grass in 

 strips about a foot wide, pair in the beginning of July. Curiously enough, most of 

 the larvae are devoured by the female parent, but the survivors lie dormant during 

 the winter, wake up in April, and after five changes of the skin become fully 

 developed in May. The mole-cricket has many enemies, among them being moles, 

 crows, and jackdaws ; but it suffers most from wet weather. 



Tlirips. 



The group of the Thysanoptera is represented in the European 

 open country by the tiny corn-thrips (Thrvps cerealium), which lives 

 on grasses, particularly the cereals. In these insects the males have no wings, and 

 are about a sixteenth of an inch long. In colour they are reddish brown, with pale 

 yellow antennas and legs. Other members of this family suck flowers, or perforate 

 the outer layers of leaves,, Their larvae are exactly like the full-grown insects, with 

 the exception that they have undeveloped wings. Some kinds are often found 



v-,y . 



SAXD-CEXTIPEDE. 



in hundreds on the blossoms of plants, but others live, with their red or yellow 

 larvae, beneath the bark of trees. 



The crab-spider (Xysticus viaticum), so often met with in fields 

 and gardens, is distinguishable by its dark brown body, with a paler 

 edge, the three-toothed band along the abdomen, and the brown-spotted legs, 

 which in the male are black half-way up. 



Passing on to another group, mention may be made of the sand- 

 centipede {lulus sabulosus), which lives under stones, and is blackish 

 brown in colour, marked on the back with two reddish yellow stripes. It occasionally 

 reaches 2 inches in length, though never more than an eighth of an inch in width, 

 the body being a long narrow cylinder, which can be rolled up at will, and con- 

 sists of from forty-four to fifty-five segments, the last but one having a horny tip. 



Crab-Spider. 



Sand-Centipede. 



