March 0, 871. ] 



JOUENA.Ii OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



233 



centre and accompaniments with Fern or Lily of the Valley 

 leaves, pinched bo as to make them droop downwards, and put 

 Eases or other flowers within, or Fnohslas in all ; or Wild 

 Marguerites, Battercups, and Grasses ; or Asters, &a., during 

 summer. 



For autumn we use Bigoonia radicans for a centre; also 

 leaves of large Funkias, Dahlia?, Azalea leaves when changing 

 tint, variegated Laburnum or Plane, Mountain Ash berries, 

 with sprigs of white Holly, and Ivy wreaths either for the 

 centre or all. 



The dishes containing dessert should always be garnished 

 with something to suit the centre and vases. 



"We find pots of Primula, Solauum Capsioastrnm, and Cine- 

 raria convenient for variety, but we should gladly use stove 

 plants and flowers if we could command such. I only aim, 

 however, at giving, from successful experience, a few hints 

 which may benefit those, who, like ourselves, require and 

 enjoy a great amount of table-decoration yielded by very 

 moderate garden establishments, and, perhaps, some other 

 correspondents will resume the subject for the advantage of 

 the numerous class which it interests. — H. C. 



SOME PREDATORY INSECTS OF OUR 



GAEDENS.— No. 5. 



The amiable poet Cowper, when describing one of his rambles 



near Olney, takes occasion to refer to an object familiar enough 



to most country folks, little as they may be acquainted with 



the dweller beneath : — 



" Hillocks green and soft, 

 Eaisedby the mole, the miner of the soil. 

 He, not unlike the great ones of mankind, 

 Disfigures earth, and plotting in the dark, 

 Toils much to raise a monumental pile 

 That may record the mischief he has done." 



So might it be said, in a measure, of a humbler creature still 

 bearing the same name, with an addendum, only he does not 

 raise a pile, but casts up slight ridges, or satisfies himself by 

 producing such an efiect upon the vegetation above, that it is 

 obvious some enemy is at work beneath. The elevations he 

 causes have been compared by some to those of the field mouse. 

 The mole cricket is a species historically interesting, and 

 both its structure and habits deserve remark ; nor is it, at 

 least in this country, sufficiently numerous to cause us any 

 very serious damage, though where it does occur it shows no 

 want of ability and inclination. In France and other Conti- 

 nental countries mole crickets are familiar garden pests, the 

 French name, courtilliere, indicating the locality they most 

 prefer. Though Wheat fields, and even grass lands, are the 

 occasional resort of these insects, the kitchen garden and the 

 nursery are their chosen spots. The species, scientifically 

 called Gryllotalpa vulgaris, has an abundance of vernacular 

 names. The churr worm, eve churr, fen cricket, and earth 

 crab are the principal of these ; the last, though owing its 

 origin to the singular forelegs of the insect, is scarcely appro- 

 priate thereto. About Oxford also, London informs us that it 

 is called the " croaker." Though tolerably common in some 

 counties, it is apparently unknown in others ; the southern 

 districts of England seem especially exposed to its incursions. 

 I have not succeeded in detecting it in the vicinity of the 

 metropolis. Its habits would have led one to suppose that it 

 would be commoner in the fenny and marshy districts than it 

 appears to be usually, but though partial to a swampy wet soil, 

 and delighting to frequent the edges of streams, it is by no 

 means aquatic, and is easily destroyed by pouring water in its 

 hole when this is detected. Abroad they have also tried the 

 expedient of burying vessels of water at different distances 

 with some slight success. The three years stated to be re- 

 quired for it to complete its transformations also tends to 

 cause an irregularity in its occurrence, and it is checked by 

 various parasites, one in particular, noted by Bennie, a coleop- 

 terous insect, which contrives to make its way to the egg nest, 

 and commits devastations amongst the embryo mole crickets. 

 And if the extraordinary story related by Nordlinger is authentic, 

 another check upon their multiplication might be imagined. 

 He states that in a garden some person finding a mole cricket out 

 it clean in half with his spade. Some little while afterwards 

 he looked round towards the spot, and to his surprise and dis- 

 gust saw the head section had turned to the right about, and 

 had commenced devouring the tail half! Remarkable, cer- 

 tainly, yet do not reject the tale, worthy reader, since it comes 

 from Germany. But if a mole cricket would eat a portion of 

 its own body, it would not, assuredly, be very ecrnpnlous about 



taking a bite out of a relative, especially in the larval state 

 and there is no doubt at least that they are not solely vegetable 

 feeders in the imago condition, and part of their tunnelling is 

 dona in the pursuit of underground insects and other root- 

 feeders. Gould relates that he fed a mole cricket for a time 

 entirely upon ants. 



The anatomy of the mole cricket, when investigated, shows 

 that the insect is exactly adapted to the mode of life it leads. 

 Unlike crickets and grasshoppers, the insects are unable to leap, 

 the structuro of the hind legs disqualifying them for exploits of 

 this sort. The abdomen is heavy, and serves as a counter- 

 poise, which prevents them from taking extensive flights in the 

 air, though the wings are broad and delicately reticulated ; in 

 fact, they have no particular occasion for wandering far from 

 their homes, except a vigorous process of digging and earth- 

 ing-up has been set a-going, which would be by no means con- 

 genial to them. The first pair of legs serve at once to identify 

 the species, even when it is in the hands of a tyro. They are 

 furnished with very powerful muscles, and are broad and in- 

 dented, the claws at the extremity of each being four in 

 number, and directed outwards, corresponding to the mode of 

 excavating pursued by the mole cricket. The body is also 

 suited to a life so largely subterranean. Eennie adds that 

 " the breast is formed of a thick, hard, horny substance, which 

 is further strengthened within by a double framework of strong 

 gristle, in front of the extremities of which the shoulder blades 

 of the arms are firmly joined : a structure evidently intended 

 to prevent the breast from being injured by the powerful action 

 of the muscles in digging." 



Another remarkable circumstance in the internal economy 

 of this creature was first referred to in White's " Selborne," 

 and has thence been often re-copied. From the position and 

 form of the digestive system, physiolegists supposed that the 

 mole cricket ruminated as some quadrupeds. A description of 

 the stomach by Professor Owen leaves the point doubtful. He 

 compares the arrangement of that portion of the insect's 

 interior to that of the graminivorous birds. There is a cavity 

 (or crop, as it might be called) at one side of the gullet. Be- 

 yond this is a canal, which connects it with a small gizzard, 

 into the lower part of which there open two pouches of some 

 capacity ; but as no one has yet been able to see the internal 

 economy of the mole cricket in working order, the uses of the 

 different parts thereof remain as conjectural as are the stories 

 concerning its luminosity. The first inkling of this peculiar 

 property is given by Kirby and Spence, resting upon a rather 

 slender foundation. Some farmer of Norwich brings to a Dr. 

 Sutton a mole cricket, and tells him that one of his people 

 seeing a jack o'lantern pursued it, and knocking it down found 

 he had got a mole cricket, as the specimen proved. I believe, 

 in different forms, a story of a similar character has been re- 

 peated in some natural history periodicals, but I have not seen 

 one so circumstantially set forth as to give full conviction on 

 this point, though prima facie the thing is possible. The 

 vocal powers of the mole cricket cannot be called in question. 

 Yet, though I thus speak of the sound, it is not a stridulatiou 

 proceeding from organs in the head of the insect, but results 

 from a fiietion of the wing cases with the hind legs, and it is 

 thought that the males of the species are chiefly employed 

 thus, being most noisy at the vernal season. The note is low 

 and monotonous, and would, no doubt, be variously described 

 by different individuals. Not having heard it myself, unfor- 

 tunately, I cannot give my testimony, the predominant com- 

 parison being to the note of some of the owl species. It is 

 during the present month that the larvEe come nearer to the 

 surface, the rapidly advancing temperature reviving them from 

 the torpidity in which it is supposed they pass the winter. 

 They emerge from the egg during July or August, though 

 whether there is a hatch every season is doubtful; probably 

 not, if the larval life lasts through two years and some months 

 more. The greater injury is done to the gardener by the larva;, 

 as I conceive, because their destructive powers must exceed 

 those of the mole cricket matured, though the latter, through 

 its tunnelling operations, may exhibit more markedly traces of 

 its subterranean labours. 



A very decidedly unpleasant insect ia the cockroach, which, 

 in its Latin name— viz., Blatta orientalis, keeps before our 

 notice the fact that it was originally a foreign visitor, and has 

 found our island such agreeable quarters, that its stay is likely 

 to be prolonged indefinitely. Strange, indeed, some may 

 hastily say, to name this as one of the enemies of the horti- 

 culturist, yet corroborative evidence in abundance ceuld be 

 produced. Out of doors, as well as in those regions of houses 



