June, 1915 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 59 



there was no wiser man, failed to comprehend the distinction be- 

 tween the voracious grasshoppers and the Tettix. 



Our Theocritus, he himself of the sweet Tettix tongue, tells 

 considerable about the Acris and the little wicker cages made to 

 keep them as household pets. Maybe here poetic license is the 

 death of scientific accuracy. Throughout the Mediterranean 

 lands to-day the people make these cages for the crickets, which 

 sing sw^eetly and bring good luck. They live in captivity many 

 months. Did Theocritus balk at the word Attelabus, which fits 

 illy into his pastoral meter, or did they keep Tettix, cricket and 

 grasshopper alike in wicker cages, loving the song of all three? 

 Meleager, in the i\nthology, says clearly enough : " Oh, cricket, 

 soother of slumber, who dispels my regrets, muse of the ploughed 

 fields, beating your vocal wings with your feet, I shall feed you 

 everblooming leeks and cut up drops of dew." Here is an exact 

 picture of the cricket in its wicker cage. 



The etymology of this word, attelabus, is uncertain. To con- 

 nect it with the Greek exclamation " atetai," thus making the 

 word mean singer of sorrow, is good poetry, for the cricket song 

 is never gay and careless, but telling rather of the long night 

 watches, tinged with sadness, perhaps. Herodotus is the first to 

 use the word. It has an oriental look, and it might be one of 

 several that Herodotus brought home from Egypt. On the other 

 hand the termination of Sanscrit words meaning animals is very 

 frequently blia. Compare Carabha, Greek Karahns, English, or 

 rather scientific Latin, Carabus. Compare also the Zend word 

 for wasps " Derbices," root something like Darbha. If it were a 

 Sanscrit word, one must look for its original in something like 

 " attelabha," but no such word has ever appeared in Sanscrit 

 literature. 



Acridion, or as Latinized, Acridium, is, of course, a little grass- 

 hopper, and the word is one of the many translated by Linne into 

 modern scientific language. The most that can be said about it is 

 the plaint of Theocritus : " Oh, Acridion, do not, I pray you, leap 

 over my fence and spoil my young vines." 



