120 ZOOLOGY. 



still incapable of flight. Working the soil with 

 harrows, rollers, and cultivators will be effective here. 

 The adult grasshoppers must for the most part be 

 destroyed with fire. [Heaps of straw and brushwood 

 are soaked with paraffin and then set on fire.] 



The Mole Cricket {Gryllotalpa wlgaris). 



Body stout and flattened. Antennse, palps, and 

 tail-filaments very long. Fore legs broad, modified 

 into true " digging legs," superficially resembling the 

 feet of a mole. Fore wings broad, but short, leathery. 

 In a state of rest, the hind wings lie on the back, 

 like a couple of tails. Colour dark brown. Princi- 

 pally occurs on peaty soils mixed with sand or clay, 

 also on all soils which have become of firm consistency 

 by the application of much manure. Their presence 

 is therefore local. Very early in the year the mole- 

 cricket leaves its winter hiding-place, and begins to 

 make its passages near the surface. Where the female 

 makes her nest the passage turns downward a little. 

 The nest is 1| of an inch in diameter, and its walls 

 are compacted by the pressure of the hard body. The 

 number of eggs is from 200 to 250 ; they are laid in 

 lots with a few intermediate spaces. The young 

 creep out in the spring, and are wingless. To begin 

 with, they are white, but quickly become brown. The 

 mother guards her young very carefully. These grow 

 tolerably fast, and first begin to lead an independent life 

 after the second moult. In October and November they 

 undergo a third moult. Then, still in a wingless con- 

 dition, they hide themselves, and do not moult again 

 till April or May, when the wing-cases appear ; while 

 after the fifth moult (May, June) the mole cricket 

 becomes an adult insect, capable of reproducing. This 

 insect is found in cornfields, gardens, grassland, and 

 meadows, also in orchards and woods. It gnaws the 

 roots of all kinds of plants, and often effects great 



