THE MONSTERS OF OUR HACK YARDS 



587 



do none of them contribute to beauty, 

 though quite in keeping with their ar- 

 mored war-horse appearance. 



Two long tiexible circi protrude Hke 

 tails behind, but the task of finding out 

 what they are for has been too difficult 

 for man. Perhaps the strange nerve-end- 

 ing hairs which they bristle with may be 

 sensitive to vibrations of the air, of 

 which we yet know nothing. 



THE STOXE OR CAMEL CRICKET (CcutllO- 

 pliilus ulilcri), page 584 



It would not be a good idea to let the 

 children think that creatures such as 

 this were prowling round the house at 

 night — that is, unless you assure them 

 that it is only a harmless, tawny yellow 

 stone-cricket from the shady woods, 

 where it generally hides under stones 

 and damp, decaying logs. 



It seems strangely equipped for its 

 night life, for it has antennse as long as 

 its body. I cannot help wondering if 

 these help it to jump in the dark. Fabre. 

 the great French entomologist, has tried, 

 as others have, to find out just how the 

 insects use their antennae and what they 

 are really for. He says at last "our 

 senses do not represent all the ways by 

 which the animal puts himself in touch 

 with that which is not himself ; there 

 are other ways of doing it, perhaps 

 many, not even remotely analogous to 

 those which Ave ourselves possess." 



THE COCKROACH (Blatclh gcrmanica). 

 PAGE 585 



In carboniferous times this was a 

 dominant creature, crawling over the 

 giant club mosses and tree ferns which 

 composed the marshy vegetation of the 

 young world. Today it crawls over the 

 cracker-box and makes its way through 

 every crevice in the kitchen and is of all 

 the creatures of our houses the most de- 

 tested. This is the German cockroach, 

 an importation from Europe, which has 

 spread around the world and which Xew 

 Yorkers know as the croton bug. 



Its long, spiny legs are built for the 

 scurrying for which it is noted, while its 

 slippery body enables it to squeeze 

 through crevices and holes. It carries 

 its head tucked under its bodv, as if 



looking for food, and its whip-like an- 

 tennae, always in motion, detect at long 

 range the presence of anything edible 

 which can be crammed into its capacious 

 croj). 



Housewives may be surprised to learn 

 that a cockroach can live five years, and 

 that it takes a year to develop to ma- 

 turity from the egg. The female lays 

 her eggs in a horny capsule like a spec- 

 tacle case, which she carries about with 

 her until she is ready to deposit it in 

 some suitable place. Later she returns 

 to help her cockroach babies out of their 

 shells. 



Like the crickets, cockroaches love the 

 night and shun the daylight. They can- 

 not tolerate cold weather, and though 

 there are 5.000 species they mostly in- 

 habit the tropics, where they are the 

 plague of domestic and ship life. It is 

 said that "ships come into San Fran- 

 cisco from their long half-year voyages 

 around the Horn with the sailors wear- 

 ing gloves on their hands when asleep in 

 their bunks in a desperate effort to save 

 their finger-nails from being gnawed oflF 

 by the hordes of roaches which infest 

 the whole ship" (Kellogg). 



And now a rumor comes to us that the 

 cockroach carries cancer. 



THE CICADA (Cicada sayi), page 586 



The coming of the swallow is scarcely 

 more significant to Americans of the 

 Southern States than the arrival of the 

 cicada. Its song is the noisiest song in 

 the insect world. Darwin describes how 

 on the Beagle, while a quarter of a mile 

 off the coast of South America, he heard 

 a tropical cicada singing. Whether we 

 like their note or not. it is one of the 

 shrillest and most peculiar sounds in the 

 world. It is made in a curious way. by 

 the stretching and relaxing of a corru- 

 gated drum-like memlirane in the side of 

 the abdomen of the creature under its 

 wings. This is done bv means of spe- 

 cially strong muscles. The sound is con- 

 trolled in rhvthmic cadences by means 

 of semicircular discs or covers to the 

 drums, which can be closed and opened 

 at the will of the insect. 



This noisv song, which the male alone 

 can sing, he doubtless sings for his mate 



