1 84 THE BRITISH NATURE BOOK 



serrated ridge, a small file ; this is the bow, while the membrane aforesaid 

 is the fiddle of the insect's music, the grasshopper producing it by rubbing 

 the left wing over a ridge on the right. The females have long "tails" in 

 reality ovipositors that is, instruments by which the eggs are laid. Whilst 

 many feed on vegetation, most species catch (with their fore-leg ) and devour 

 flies and caterpillars. The eggs are laid in the earth, or in some dry stem 

 in the autumn, from which larvae -\tery like the adults are produced in the 

 following spring ; these moult five or six times before assuming the adult 

 form. 



The Great Green Grasshopper (Locusta viridissima) belongs to the LONG- 

 HORNED or TREE GRASSHOPPERS (Phasgonuridce), which feed on leaves. It is 

 about 2 inches long, and green in colour The Common Grasshopper is smaller, 

 and belongs to the SHORT-HORNED GRASSHOPPERS, or true LOCUSTS. Another 

 British species is Decticus verrucivoms, which gets its name from the habit of 

 Swedish peasants who make it bite their warts, which the fluid secretion 

 from the insect's mouth is said to cure. 



CRICKETS (Gryllida). 



These resemble the grasshoppers in many respects, having " ears " and 

 chirping organs. Four species are found in Britain. The Wood Cricket 

 (Nemobius sylvestris) is very local only found in the New Forest. The Mole 

 Cricket (Gryttotalpa vulgaris) is a very curious species, about 2 inches long, 

 having enormous, broad fore-legs, like the fore-limbs of a mole, specially adapted 

 for burrowing underground. It is by no means common, but may sometimes 

 be seen flying in the evenings. It is of a greyish brown colour, with a silken 

 sheen. The eggs, encased in a cocoon, are laid underground, the larvae taking 

 some years to mature. Whilst the Mole Cricket does some damage by destroy- 

 ing the roots of crops, it is far more largely carnivorous. I have kept this 

 curious insect for some time in a glass-covered box in damp soil, and have 

 seen it attack small worms, grubs, and larvae. 



The House Cricket (Gryllus domesticus), the most familiar of all insects 

 of the house, and regarded as " lucky," as witness Dickens's Cricket on the 

 Hearth. It has a whitish yellow body about half an inch long, hiding in chinks 

 and crevices, close to the fire. Indeed, away from the heat it becomes dormant 

 in the winter. The larva is wingless, the pupa also having only rudimentary 

 wings. It hunts actively at night for crumbs and other scraps of food. 



The Field Cricket (Gryllus campestris) is a very local species, black in colour, 

 burrowing underground, and doing damage to vegetables. It is common 

 on the Continent. 



Order IV. PLECOPTERA. 



Stone-flies. Of these some twenty-four species occur in Britain. The 

 eggs are laid in water, and the larvae and nymphal forms are aquatic, resembling 



