PRISCH 241 



merely upon observing, but upon interpreting the facts 

 of structure and habit. He takes one insect at a time, 

 describes its external features, figures it in all its stages, 

 if possible, and tells all that he has been able to discover 

 about its mode of life. There is hardly any attempt at 

 systematic arrangement. The simple microscope is 

 regularly employed, but it is unusual to find any 

 mention of internal anatomy. He was solicitous to 

 study his insects alive, and reared many in his own 

 house. Writing for the unlearned as well as for pro- 

 fessed naturalists, he used German names instead of 

 Latin and Greek. He introduced into Germany the 

 word insect, regularly used by Pliny, and by this time 

 quite familiar in France and England. The plates 

 were engraved from Frisch's own drawings, the early 

 ones by his son, Philip Jacob, who was only a boy when 

 the publication began. 



The Field-Cricket^ 



Frisch begins with the field-cricket. The external 

 parts are mentioned and figured, and the differences of 

 the sexes noted. A good account follows of the sound- 

 producing organs on the wing-covers of the male, and 

 the act of shrilling is described from life. The file and 

 resonator are recognised, but the minute structure of 

 the file is not discovered. The cerci are said, probably 

 with truth, to serve as feelers, which in the darkness of 

 the burrow perceive any moving thing which may 

 approach the cricket from behind. The hind legs and 

 their use in leaping or digging, as well as the ovipositor 

 of the female, are shortly noticed. Frisch is very cir- 

 cumstantial about the mode of life, having kept crickets 

 in captivity from hatching to old age. He tells us that 



iPt. I, oh. i-v. 

 Q 



