MOLE CRICKET. 245 



insects was practieall}' impossible, no matter bow carefully tbe 

 babitation was prepared for tbem. He tried tbe experiment 

 of boring- a number of deep holes in a sloping- bank in his 

 garden, and putting into them a number of Field Crickets 

 which he took from their accustomed haunts outside the village. 

 For a time he thought that he had succeeded in his wish, as 

 the insects fed and sang, but they deserted their new liabitu- 

 tion by degrees, and at last wholly abandoned it. 



Another species of British Cricket is the Wood Cricket 

 {Acheta sylvesfris). This is much smaller than the preceding 

 insect, the head and body not being- quite lialf an inch in 

 length, excluding the antennse and appendages of the abdomen. 

 It mav be known by the structure of the elytra, which in the 

 male do not reach to tlie end of tlie body, and in the female 

 are onlv one-third as long as the abdomen. The mnle is darker 

 and more mottled than the female. This is a very rare insect. 

 Its liome is in the Xew P""orest, where it has been found near 

 Lyndhurst, under dried leaves in a gravel-pit. 



On Plate VII. Fig. 5, is shown the odd-looking Mole 

 Cricket {GryllotalYja vulgaris), one of the largest insects 

 inhabiting England, not only being larger than most of our. 

 insects, but stouter and more muscular. The name of ]Mole 

 Cricket is a very appropriate one, for the insect is not only 

 a Cricket, but is shaped wonderfully like the mole, and has 

 many of the habits of that animal, as we shall presently see. 

 There is but one genus and one s]>ecies of Mole Cricket in- 

 habiting England, and there is no possibility of mistaking the 

 insect even in the earlier stages of existence. The tibiae of 

 the fore-legs are developed into a stout, broad, flat, digging 

 apparatus, armed with sharp and strong claws, the wliole limb 

 being almost exactly like that of the mole. Two views of this 

 extraordinary apparatus are given in Woodcut XXV., the upper 

 surface being drawn at Fig. 9, and the under surface at Fig. b. 

 The latter figure shows how the small feet and claws are tucked 

 away under the broad, palmated tibia, so as not to be injured 

 while the insect is employed in digging. Other portions of 

 the anatomy of the insect are given in the same illustration, 

 Fig i representing the labium and j the maxilla with its palpus. 



