56 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



bottom of the shaft, where its juices are sucked and 

 the innutritive remains hoisted out. 



The last of these earth-miners to whom reference 

 will be made are the Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa 

 vulgaris) and the Field Cricket (Gryllus camfestris). 

 The Mole {Talpa europea) is a wonderful example 

 amongst mammals of adaptation of structure to 

 mode of life ; and it is rather startling to find 

 among insects so close a copy of one of the higher 

 animals as we do find in the Mole Cricket. There 

 is the same cylindrical form of body, and the same 

 peculiar spade-like development of the fore limbs 

 to render them serviceable as most efficient burrow- 

 ing tools. The name of the creature is obviously the 

 right one ; our forefathers who bestowed it could 

 have had no difficulty in the matter. One would 

 imagine that the name would suggest itself to any 

 one who had seen a mole. Yet we were surprised 

 to learn quite recently that a closely allied species 

 to our European Mole Cricket is known to British 

 planters on the Indian tea-gardens as the Mouse 

 Insect. To these planters the fore legs suggested 

 the feet of a rodent. 



The Mole Cricket makes horizontal runs much 

 after the fashion of those of the mole, but nearer 

 the surface. The mole's burrows are to enable it 

 to have a large extent of hunting-ground where he 

 can come across worms and insects such as the 

 grub of the cockchafer lately referred to. The 

 Mole Cricket is supposed by the gardener to have 

 roots chiefly in view, though insects form part of 



