THE CRICKETS 



959 



to study the Mole Cricket in other 

 people's gardens. 



"Short Lithe" is described in Letter 

 XLM. as a steep, abrupt pasture field 

 interspersed with furze, consisting of a 

 rocky dry soil and inclining to the after- 

 noon sun. 



It would need but slight modification 

 to make this description strictly applicai)le 

 to the locality wliere I first heard, and 

 soon afterwards first saw, the Field Cricket. 



Let the reader picture a sun-burnt, 

 grassy slope, fringed on its summit by a 

 coppice, and with its surface broken here 

 and there by stunted brambles. Half-way 

 up it he might, on the occasion referred 

 to, have seen a crouching figure, bent 

 almost double, working stealthily upwards, 

 tip-fingered and tip-toed, searching the 

 ground with infinite precaution, now 

 pausing rigid as a stone, now slowly 

 stretching out a hand to part a grass tuft. 

 The Cricket hunter must go slow. He 

 must let neither flicker in the grass nor 

 whisper in the air escape him. Above all, 

 he must know what to look for. Apart 

 from the welcome sound of stridulation, 

 there are certain definite signs which in 

 time lead him to his quarry. Field 

 Crickets are solitary insects, and reside in 

 burrows of their own making. From 

 these during the daytime they seem never 

 to move more than a few inches, and their 

 feeding on the grass and roots in the 

 immediate vicinity (Mr. O. H. Latter, to 

 whom I owe my first introduction to 

 Crickets at large, informs me that they 



are especially fond of the " bulbs " of the 

 bulbous buttercup) often results in the 

 presence of a bare patch of soil, two or 

 three inches square, immediately before 

 the burrow entrance. A stridulating 

 Cricket is usually about half-way out of 

 his hole, presenting his back to the land- 

 scape. A Cricket who is sunning himself, 

 or lying in wait for smaller insects (Crickets 

 by no means confine tliemselves to a 

 vegetable diet), faces outwards, or, it 

 may be, climbs a few inches up the 

 neighbouring grass stems. In either case 

 the slightest vibration will send him back- 

 wards or forwards down his burrow. 



Field Crickets breed in the warm 

 summer months. I have never witnessed 

 courtship in the case of Field Crickets at 

 large, and I fancy that it must occur after 

 dark. In the case of captives the male 

 commences by stridulating with the 

 utmost energy, and so calling the female's 

 attention to himself. Once this is effected 

 he circles round her, drawing closer and 

 closer and chirruping in a jerky staccato 

 fashion. His final advances are made 

 backwards. 



The female's ovipositor is a flimsy one 

 compared with the corresponding organ 

 in Long-horned Grasshoppers, and it is 

 to be presumed that the eggs are de- 

 posited in crannies in the ground, or, 

 perhaps, in the recesses of grass tufts. 

 The larval Crickets are pale in colour. 

 They pass through six or seven moults 

 before hibernating, in somewhat deep 

 holes of just sufficient diameter to admit 





1 2 3 



THREE STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FIELD CRICKET. 

 1. Larval stafie (September). 2. Nymph stage (March) 3. Imago stafie Uuly). In 2 the body 

 is covered with a fine golden down, and the rudiments of the winfts appear. In 3 the 

 wing-covers are fully developed, concealing the wings entirely. 



