Insect Study 



373 



THE BLACK CRICKET 

 Teacher's Story 



IF we wish to become acquainted with these charming 

 Uttle troubadours of the field, we should have a 

 cricket cage with a pair of them within it. They are 

 most companionable, and it is interesting to note how 

 quickly tliey respond to a musical sound. I had a 

 pair in my room at one time, when I lived very near 

 a cathedral. Almost every time that the bells rang 

 during the night, my cricket would respond with a 

 most vivacious and sympathetic chirping. 

 The patent leather finish to this cricket's clothes is 

 of great use; for, although the cricket is an efficient 

 jumper, it is after all, mostly by running between grass blades that it 

 escapes its enemies. If we try to catch one, we realize how slippery it is, 

 and how efficiently it is thus able to slide through the fingers. 



The haunts of the cricket are usually sunny; it digs a little cave 

 beneath a stone or clod in some field, where it can have the whole benefit 

 of all the sunshine, when it issues from its door. These crickets cannot 

 fly, since they have no wings under their wing-covers, as do the grass- 

 hoppers. The hind legs have a strong femur, and a short but strong tibia 

 with downward slanting spines along the hind edge, which undoubtedly 

 help the insect in scrambling through the grass. At the end of the tibia, 

 next to the foot, is a rosette of five spines, the two longer ones slanting to 



A section of the file enlarged. 



The wing of male cricket 



enlarged. 



a, file b. scraper. 



The front leg of a cricket enlarged 

 showing ear at a. 



meet the foot; these spines give the insect a firm hold, when making 

 ready for its spring. When walking, the cricket places the whole hind 

 foot flat on the ground, but rests only upon the claw and the segment next 

 to it, of the front pairs of feet. The claws have no pads like those of the 

 katydid or grasshopper; the segment of the tarsus next the claw has long 

 spines on the hind feet and shorter spines on the middle and front feet, 

 thus showing that the fee*", C£0 not made for climbing, but for scrambling 

 along the ground. When getting ready to jump, the cricket crouches so 

 that the tibia and femur of the hind legs are shut together and almost on 

 the ground. The dynamics of the cricket's leap are well worth studying. 



