180 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



insect world, and make tortuous galleries, destroying everything that comes in their 

 way, cutting through roots and eating the fine underground twigs, as well as the worms 

 and grubs, which they meet with during their burrowings. Some authors have claimed 

 that these crickets are truly carnivorous, but this is a mistake. They do eat such 

 worms and insects as come in their way, but their nourishment consists principally of 

 vegetable food. Their excavations consist of vertical shafts, of various depths, and 

 of horizontal galleries, which lead from them in different directions. These are to 

 be found in the soft, moist earth on the margins of streams and about ponds, where 

 they can be readily detected by the small upraised ridges, like those made by the 

 mole. 



The female Gryllotalpa lays her eggs, to the number of three hundred to four 

 hundred, in the remotest part of the gallery. They are laid in the spring of the year, 

 and are contained in tough sacs. 



The males sing during the warm, still nights of spring and early summer. The 

 song is a low, continued, rather pleasant trill, quite similar to that of the common toad, 

 but more shrill. It is produced by rubbing together the anterior wings, which are 

 furnished with heavy veins, roughened on their contiguous surfaces, and so arranged 

 as to magnify the sounds. 



The species are all of a dirty, brownish-gray color, and resemble one another very 

 closely. They are quite generally distributed over the inhabited world, though they 

 become more numerous towards and within the tropics. Qrijllotalpa borealis is found 

 throughout the northern part of the United States and portions of British America, 

 while further south it is replaced by Gryllotalpa longipennis. In Europe Chyllotalpa 

 vulgaris is the most widely disseminated species. It is figured in the accompanying 

 plate, where a female is illusti-ated in the act of coming out of the shaft, in the bottom 

 of which are eggs. A male is shown in the act of flying, and the young are seen 

 crawling about on the surface of the soil. One species of mole-ci'icket is very numerous 

 in the West Indies, where it does great injury to sugar-cane. There are about two 

 dozen species described, from various parts of the world. 



A second genus of this family is that known as Tridactylus, the members of which 

 are all small and insignificant in appearance, the largest being but about one-third of 

 an inch in length. They bear a slight resemblance to the Gryllotalpm, and are found 

 in similar localities, where they sometimes burrow in the soft, moist earth, or sit on 

 the low herbage. They are very active, and possess the power of jumping in the 

 highest degi'ce. They derive their name from the peculiar structure of the anterior 

 tibiae and tarsi, which in the male have the appearance of being three-parted, or fin- 

 gered. The different species are variously colored with black and white, the black 

 portions being very highly polished. Tridactylus epicalis is found in the south, while 

 Tridactylus variegatus is the most common species in Europe. There are but about 

 a dozen described species of these small crickets. They are supposed to be entirely 

 herbivorous, and they lay their eggs in the ground, near streams and ponds. These 

 crickets are found in all stages the year round, but their principal period of multipli- 

 cation is in the spring. 



We now come to that large tribe of this family which contains the common house 

 cricket, and the field species of this country and of Europe. They are among the best 

 known of all insects, and from their habit of hiding about the hearthstone have been 

 made the theme of many a pleasant ditty. Each one digs for itself a hole, which it 

 seldom leaves except at night. During the day they often sit with their heads out of 



