THE CRICKET 129 



a hook to it, and a vibrating membrane. The right wing- 

 case overlaps the left and covers it almost completely, except 

 where it folds back sharply and encases the insect's side. It 

 is the opposite arrangement to that which we find in the 

 Green Grasshopper, the Decticus, and their kinsmen. The 

 Cricket is right-handed, the others left-handed. 



The two wing-cases are made in exactly the same way. 

 To know one is to know the other. They lie flat on the 

 insect's back, and slant suddenly at the side in a right-angled 

 fold, encircling the body with a delicately veined pinion. 



If you hold one of these wing-cases up to the light you 

 will see that it is a very pale red, save for two large adjoining 

 spaces ; a larger, triangular one in front, and a smaller, oval 

 one at the back. They are crossed by faint wrinkles. These 

 two spaces are the sounding-boards, or drums. The skin is 

 finer here than elsewhere, and transparent, though of a some- 

 what smokv tint. 







At the hinder edge of the front part are two curved, parallel 

 veins, with a cavity between them. This cavity contains five or 

 six little black wrinkles that look like the rungs of a tiny ladder. 

 They supply friction : they intensify the vibration by increas- 

 ing the number of points touched by the bow. 



On the lower surface one of the two veins that surround 

 the cavity of the rungs becomes a rib cut into the shape of a 

 hook. This is the bow. It is provided with about a hundred 

 and fifty triangular teeth of exquisite geometrical regularity. 



It is a fine instrument indeed. The hundred and fifty 

 teeth of the bow, biting into the rungs of the opposite wing- 

 case, set the four drums in motion at one and the same time, 

 the lower pair by direct friction, the upper pair by the shaking 

 of the friction - apparatus. What a rush of sound ! The 

 Cricket with his four drums throws his music to a distance 

 of some hundreds of yards. 



He vies with the Cicada in shrillness, without having the 

 latter's disagreeable harshness. And better still : this favoured 

 creature knows how to modulate his song. The wing-cases, 



R 



