BAUMGARTNER: OBSERVATIONS ON THE GRYLLID^. 313 



The females will eat the empty spermatophores whenever they 

 find them. 



Among the mole crickets I observed this peculiarity between 

 two species. In a box of specimens of Scapteriscus sent me 

 from Porto Rico I never discovered any partially devoured 

 ones among the few dead specimens; but while collecting our 

 own species Gryllotalpa borealis, in northern Indiana, I placed 

 one female adult and six nymphs in a bottle full of sand in 

 the field. When I returned to the laboratory I found but two 

 nymphs, the others having been devoured by the adult. This, 

 with some later experiences, led me to believe that adults will 

 eat the nymphs whenever they find them in their burrowings. 

 However, this cannot be true for the very young nymphs, as the 

 eggs are laid in a mass in a much frequented part of the 

 burrow, and the mother, no doubt, cares for the eggs and 

 young for a while. 



EGG-LAYING. 



Blatchley (6) says: "The eggs of most crickets are laid 

 singly in the ground." My observations confirm this as far 

 as Gryllus and Nemobius are concerned. The large black field 

 cricket selects usually a somewhat barren spot in a grassy 

 field, where she lays her eggs. She will force her ovipositor 

 into the ground and deposit a single egg, then removing the 

 ovipositor partly will put it down at a different angle and 

 plant another egg, and repeating the process will leave a third. 

 On no occasion did I see more than four eggs laid without the 

 ovipositor being completely removed and pushed into the 

 ground at a new place. Nemohius lays its eggs in a similar 

 manner. Two or three, rarely four, eggs are laid almost side 

 by side, and then the next batch are placed a quarter of an 

 inch or more away. 



In but one instance did I find eggs laid by the mole cricket. 

 They were "in a heap on the floor in the enlarged part of a side 

 gallery," just as Barrett (i) has described. 



CHIRPING. 



A peculiar habit of the mole crickets, of which I made brief 

 mention in an abstract (^), is the chirping of the female. A 

 hurried examination of the tegmina of the females will show 

 that the nerves are modified into a rasping and sounding organ, 

 which is not as large or as well developed as that of the male, 

 but well enough to have made thoughtful observers of the past 



