168 THE ACHETINA. 



when they immediately form their burrows, which 

 are usually made under a stone for the sake of the 

 protection which this affords them from the storms 

 of winter. In the spring, when, according to White, 

 they have attained the pupa state, they remove to 

 another locality, where they form new burrows, in 

 which they undergo their last change of skin, and in 

 which they remain during the period of the courtship 

 with all its attendant singing. According to Colonel 

 Goureau, when the female makes her appearance, the 

 male changes his shrill chirping, which may be heard at 

 a considerable distance, for a softer and more tender 

 note, and the happy pair march about complacently 

 in the neighbourhood of their habitations. The 

 males fight desperately, and the victor usually devours 

 his antagonist. 



A still more remarkable British species of this 

 tribe is the Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris), a 

 large insect, measuring sometimes nearly two inches 

 in length, of a reddish-brown colour above, paler and 

 yellowish beneath, and with the whole surface of the 

 body clothed with a velvet-like pubescence. It is 

 furnished with wings and elytra, but the hind legs 

 are much shorter, and evidently less adapted for leap- 

 ing than those of the House Cricket, and the female is 

 destitute of the long ovipositor possessed by that 

 species. But the most remarkable peculiarity in the 

 structure of this curious insect is the conformation of 

 the anterior legs, which are short, but of immense 

 bulk and power, the thighs being very thick, and the 

 tibise dilated into a broad, triangular, toothed plate, 

 which bears a short strong tarsus near its outer mar- 

 gin. The whole limb is turned outwards in such a 

 manner as exactly to resemble the hand of the Mole, 



