THE CRICKET 9 



cell and is produced by the male. The union of egg and 

 sperm-cell is called fertilization. The young eggs are formed 

 in the female cricket within several tubes that lie in the cavity 

 of the abdomen and together make up the ovary. The ripe 

 eggs reach the exterior through a tube or duct known as the 

 oviduct, and in it they are fertihzed. The chief business of the 

 ovary is to produce food for the eggs. In the oviduct the egg 

 becomes covered with a tough protecting shell. The tip of 

 the body of the female cricket is drawn out into a long, firm 

 "ovipositor" (Fig. 3), which can be prodded into the ground, 

 so that the egg that is laid is placed several centimetres below the 

 surface, where there is less danger of drying up, of being burned 

 by the sun's rays, and of freezing and thawing during the winter. 



The musculature of the cricket consists, in the abdomen, 

 principally of dorsal and ventral muscles that l^end and 

 straighten the abdomen, telescope the segments, and aid 

 respiration. In the thorax and the head are the powerful 

 muscles that move the wings, legs, and mouth parts. The 

 muscles are fastened to the outer cuticula, since there is no 

 internal bony skeleton. 



The nervous system of the cricket consists of a series of 

 central masses of nerve-cells corresponding to our brain and 

 spinal cord, and a system of nervous fibres running out from 

 the central masses. The brain Ues over the mouth as in man, 

 but instead of connecting wath a dorsal cord as in ourselves, 

 it connects by means of a nervous ring surrounding the gullet 

 with a pair of nerve-cords running along the ventral side of 

 the body. These ventral nerve-cords are united by cross- 

 strands at points where the cord is enlarged, forming little 

 brains called ganglia, and from these ganglia nerve-fibres 

 run out to the muscles and to the sense-organs. 



