160 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



hold, the end is grasped in the jaws of the offended inhabitant, 

 and both grass-blade and Mole Cricket are drawn out together. 

 By some persons the Mole Cricket is thought to be a wholly 

 carnivorous insect, injuring the roots merely by its endeavouring 

 to force a passage through them, and not by its desire to eat 

 them. This theory was supported by sundry experiments, 

 whereby the Mole Cricket was proved to be able to subsist on 

 several substances, such as meat and insects, specimens having 

 been feed upon ants alone. Dr. Kidd, however, found that they 

 throve well upon potato, and the best entomologists have decided 

 that vegetable food is their proper diet, though they are able to 

 eat animal food, and on some occasions seem to prefer it A 

 very decided proof that the Mole Cricket is even in its wild 

 state a carnivorous being, is afforded by the fact that in the 

 stomach have been found the relics of various insects. 



Just as the mole constructs a habitation distinct from its 

 ordinary galleries, so does this insect form a chamber for domestic 

 purposes apart from the tunnels which ramify in so many direc- 

 tions. Near the surface of the ground a really large chamber is 

 constructed, measuring about three inches in diameter, and nearly 

 one inch in height. It is made very neatly, and the walls are 

 carefully smoothed. Within this chamber the Mole Cricket 

 deposits its eggs, which are generally from two to three hundred 

 in number, and yellowish in colour. As the chamber lies so 

 near the surface of the ground, the genial sunbeams are able to 

 raise the temperature sufficient for the hatching of the eggs, 

 which in hue course of time produce the tiny young, little white 

 creatures, very like the parent in shape, except that they have 

 no wings. They do not attain the perfect state until the third 

 year. The reader will- at once see that this chamber is analogous 

 to the cavities made by the Dusky Ant which has been described 

 on page 149. 



It is a rather remarkable fact that one species of this family 

 burrows, not into earth, but into wood. Its form very much 

 resembles that of the wood-burrowing beetles, the body being 

 long, and cylindrical, the legs very short and fitting into cavities 

 at the sides of the body. Its scientific name is Cylindrodes 

 Campbdlii. This is one of the oddest-looking insects that can 

 be conceived, and really bears no small resemblance to three 

 inches of a blacklead pencil. 



