May 1, 1891.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



83 



tbongli this " shrilling " is, yet most people find it a 

 perplexing task to decide exactly from what quarter it 

 proceeds. This constitutes an element of mysteriousness, 

 and it is not surprising that the invisible minstrel should 

 have been credited with occult influences. The feelings 

 with which the sound has been regarded have accordingly 

 varied with the disposition of the hearer, from super- 

 stitious reverence to downright dislike and extreme 

 irritation. While to Milton, for example, " the cricket on 

 the hearth " seemed no unsuitable accompaniment of 

 thoughtful solitude, when the devotee of " divinest Melan- 

 choly " retires to 



Some still removed place . . . 



Where glowing embers through the room 



Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 



on Gilbert White, the naturalist of Selborne, the chirping 

 of crickets had quite an opposite effect. Speaking of the 

 Field Cricket, which is in most respects much like its 

 cousin of the house, he remarks : " Sounds do not always 

 give us pleasure according to their sweetness and melody ; 

 nor do harsh sounds always displease. We are more apt 

 to be captivated or disgusted with the associations which 

 they promote than with the notes themselves. Thus the 

 shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, 

 yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds 

 with a train of summer ideas of everything that is rural, 

 verdurous, and joyous." 



If poet and naturalist do not agree here, still less are 

 they in accord in other instances ; if to the former the 

 cricket is "Little inmate, full of mirth," "always har- 

 binger of good," one whose song 

 is "soft and sweet" (!), to the 

 latter it is a "garrulous animal," 

 keeping up a " constant din," " a 

 still more annoying insect than 

 the common cockroach, adding an 

 incessant noise to its ravages." 

 And while the simple and easy- 

 going rustic life of olden times 

 might tolerate and even enjoy this 

 incessant clatter, the state of 

 nervous tension at which so much 

 of present-day life is lived will no 

 doubt lead most people to agree 

 with the naturalist here, rather 

 than with the poet, and vote the 

 cricket a household nuisance. The 

 noise upon which such different 

 views ha^•e been held is apparently 

 a love-call, and is accordingly pro- 

 duced only by the males, the female 

 crickets being, in fact, through the 

 absence of the requisite machinery for chirping, absolutely 

 dumb. To the cause of the noise we shall recur pre- 

 sently ; meanwhile, we may consider the zoological 

 position and the structure of the insect. 



As a family the crickets enjoy a wide distribution, and 

 in this country five species have been met with, though 

 for some reason best known to themselves, only one has 

 domesticated itself. The family is called (in/lliihr, and is 

 closely allied to those of the grasshoppers and locusts, 

 forming with them one of the great divisions of the order 

 Orthoptera, viz. that of the " leapers." To another sec- 

 tion of the same order, viz. the "runners," it will be 

 remembered, the cockroach belongs. Our English domes- 

 tic species (Fig. 1) is called (iri/lliai iloiiicxtirm. At first 

 sight a cricket strikes one as being not unhke a grass- 

 hopper in general form, the resemblance being caused 



Fig. 1. — House Cricket 

 (^Gryllus doinesticus). 



chiefly by the great proportionate length and elevated 

 position of the hind legs. In body, however, it is broader 

 and flatter than a grasshopper, and in other respects is 

 sufficiently distinct to be regarded as the type of a 

 different family. 



The mouth organs bear a close resemblance to those of 

 the cockroach, as a comparison of the accompanying 

 figures with those of Knowledge, vol. xii., p. 218, will 

 testify. As one looks in the insect's 

 face, the greater part of the mouth 

 organs is concealed by a not very 

 stout flap, hinged above and shaped 

 like a cheese-cutter ; this is the 

 liihniiii, or upper lip. On lifting it, 

 like the visor of a knight's helmet, 

 there is disclosed a pair of stout, 

 dark brown, horny, toothed jaws 

 (iiiandililcf:, Fig. 2), which are used 

 not merely to divide the food, but 

 also as excavating implements, to 

 hollow out retreats into wliich the 

 insects can retire in the day-time 

 or when alarmed. These mandibles 

 again, when closed, completely cover 

 the rest of the mouth organs ; on their removal, the second- 

 ary jaws, or maxilla., come into view (Fig. 3) ; these are 

 very much like the cockroach's, the inner lobe {bicinia) 

 being tipped with two sharp teeth, and received for pro- 

 tection's sake into a groove of the outer (i/alai), and they 

 are furnished with a pair of five-jointed palpi. Beneath, 

 or rather behind them, is the lnhiuni, showing again a 

 similar structure to that of the prototype, and equally 

 obviously composed of a pair of jaws which have co- 

 alesced, i.e. have become imited into a single organ in their 



Fio. -'. — Mandibl 

 Cricket. 



Fig. n. — JIouTH Organs of Cricket. «i, maxillae ; mp, maxill.irv 

 jjalpi : /, labium ; //<, labial palpi ; t, tongue. 



basal portion ; this, too, carries a pair of palpi. The 

 chief difference between the two insects is to be seen in 

 the appendage to the labium in its centre, which is called 

 the liw/uhi, or " tongue." lliis is a most marvellous and 

 exquisite structure, and deservedly a great favourite with 

 microscopists. As shown in the figure, it is pressed out 

 of place. On opening the mouth it will be seen on the 

 floor, rising into a grooved, hollow, fleshy eminence. 

 When flattened out it is found to be a kidney-shaped, 

 leaf-like expansion, strengthened throughout by radiathig 

 fibres of chitinous material, which, when highly mag- 

 nified, show a beautiful mosaic structure. Kitchen refuse 

 of various kinds constitutes the food of these creatures, 

 and a good deal of moisture as well seems to bo necessary 

 for their well-being. No doubt this curious tongue helps 

 them in drinking. They have been accused of gnawing 



