THE COMMON MOLE-CRICKET 



149 



Fig. 68. 



(Fig. 68) is, when fully grown, about one inch and a quarter 

 in length, of a light bay or fawn color, 

 and covered with a very short and vel- 

 vet-like down. The wing-covers are 

 not half the length of the abdomen, and 

 the wings are also short, their tips, when 

 folded, extending only about one eighth 

 of an inch beyond the wing-covers. 

 The fore legs are admirably adapted 

 for digging, being very short, broad, 

 and strong ; and the shanks, which are 

 excessively broad, flat, and three-sided, 

 have the lower side divided by deep 

 notches into four finger-like projections, 

 that give to this part very much the 

 appearance and the power of the hand 

 of a mole. From this similarity in 

 structure, and from its burrowing habits, 

 this insect receives its scientific name of Grryllotalpa, derived 

 from G-ryllus, the ancient name of the cricket, and Taipei, 

 a mole; and our common species has the additional name 

 of brevipennis,* or short-winged, to distinguish it from the 

 European species, which has much longer wings. Mole- 

 crickets avoid the light of day, and are active chiefly during 

 the night. They live on the tender roots of plants, and in 

 Europe, where they infest moist gardens and meadows, they 

 often do great injury by burrowing under the turf, and 

 cutting off the roots of the grass, and by undermining and 

 destroying, in this way, sometimes whole beds of cabbages, 

 beans, and flowers. In the West Indies, extensive ravages 

 have been committed in the plantations of the sugar-cane by 

 another species, Gryllotalpa didactyla, which has only two 



* Serville, " Orthoptics," p. SOS.* 



[ 2 It was previously described by Burmeister, under the name G. borealis, and 

 this name must be applied to it and retained. It was known to Catesby, who 



figures it in his " Natural History of Carolina." — Uulkk.J 



