THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 185 



Other insects hollow out the ground solely in order to 

 find their food there, and to construct a lodging for their 

 offspring. These are true miners in the strict sense of the 

 word. 



Many belong to this category, but there are scarcely any 

 the work of which is so dreaded by the farmer as that of 

 the mole-cricket. In some parts of Germany the alarm 

 which this insect inspires is such that a popular saying 



94. Mole-Cricket, natural size : Gryllotalpa vulgaris. 



. 



warns the driver of any vehicle to kill without pity all 

 those he finds, should he even have to check his team on 

 the slope of a mountain or the edge of a precipice. 



This insect, the name of which recalls at the same time 

 its subterranean habits and its family, often causes great 

 havoc in our gardens by hollowing out its galleries, and 

 cutting through the roots of plants which cross its path. 1 



1 Possibly in pursuit of worms and ants, on which it feeds. It eats, on an 

 average, about three worms a day, sucking out the flesh and leaving the skin 

 entire. Science Gossip, 1867, p. 232. Mr. Gould fed one for several months 

 on ants. TR. 



