INSECTS. 121 



damage in this way. The mole-cricket is also 

 harmful on account of its passages, which are dug 

 close to the surface. In this way it lifts young plants 

 out of the soil ; while older plants are killed, both by 

 its gnawing and by its digging. Such plants can 

 often be pulled up by grasping the leaves. All the 

 plants wither in the place where the nest is found. 

 Dry, cold winters kill almost aU the mole-crickets; 

 much drought in summer and also continuous wet 

 are unfavourable to them. Enemies : moles, rooks, etc., 

 butcher-birds, starlings, and the larger ground beetles. 

 Remedies : Destruction of the nests, in June, to begin 

 with, but also to be continued later. In those parts 

 of a field where the plants are yellow or withered in a 

 large circular patch (some 39 inches in diameter) the 

 nest is felt for with the finger, and carefully lifted up, 

 so that the eggs do not fall out. Mole-crickets can 

 also be caught by means of flower-pots. The aper- 

 tures in the bottoms of these are stopped with corks, 

 and they are then sunk in the soil with their mouths 

 on a level with the mole-cricket passages ; they thus 

 serve as pitfalls, from which the insects cannot escape. 

 If during winter little heaps of horse-dung are placed 

 on the ground, the insects creep into them for the 

 sake of the warmth, and can thus be collected and 

 killed. 



Third Order: Neuroptera (Net- winged Insects). 



Insects with biting mouth-parts and four similar 

 membranous wings, with numerous veins arranged in 

 a net-like manner. The metamorphosis is either 

 incomplete (p. 89 : dragon flies, may flies, book lice), 

 or complete (p. 89 : ant lions, lace flies, snake flies, 

 scorpion flies, caddis flies). The indigenous forms, 

 with the single exception of book lice, feed upon 

 animal food, usually on the juices of other insects. 

 Several of them are tolerably useful in this way. 



