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Family 1. — Gryllid^: (Crickets). 



The Crickets are robust, thickset insects with a large head and thorax. The antennae 

 are long and very slender. The wings are laid flat on the body, the outer edge of the 

 front pair being bent down so as to slightly overlap the body. The hindmost thighs are 

 thick and muscular, enabling them to jump quickly and to considerable distances, which 

 perhaps gave birth to the saying, " as lively as a cricket." The ovipositor is long and 

 spear-shaped, and slightly curved upwards. Packard says that " the shrilling of the 

 male is a sexual call, made by raising the f ore wings and rubbing them on the hind wings. 

 The noise is due to the peculiar structure of the fore wings, the middle portion of which 

 forms, by its transparent elastic surface, on which there are but few veinlets, a resonant 

 drum, increasing the volume of sound emitted by the rubbing of the Me on the upper 

 surface of the hind pair of wings. This file is the modified internal vein, the surface of 

 which is greatly thickened, rounded and covered closely with fine teeth. In the females 

 the wings are not thus modified, and they are silent." 



The Mole-crickets (Gryllotalpce) may be recognized by their powerful fore-feet, which 

 somewhat resemble those of a mole, being short, stout and flattened and armed with 

 tooth-iike projections. They inhabit soft and moist earth in which they drive burrows 

 resembling miniature mole runs. According to Packard, their eggs, from 300 to 400 in 

 number, are laid in the spring in tough sacks in galleries. Only one species, Gryllotalpa 

 borealis, Burin., is recorded from Canada, where it appears to be very rare. 



" 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." — (Harris.) 



Should our American species become sufficiently numerous to be injurious, they 

 might perhaps be poisoned by scattering grated vegetables sprinkled with Paris green in 

 the vicinity of their burrows. 



The large black cricket so common in dry fields during the summer months is the 

 Gryllus neglectus, Scud. ; specimens in the larval condition may be found under stones 

 as soon as the snow has melted in spriug, and on warm sunny days may be observed 

 running through the scanty herbage, making off with hasty jumps when alarmed. By 

 the end of May most of them have attained the perfect condition, but some individuals 

 are later, as I have taken a specimen in the pupa state on June 4th, 1885. 



I have not been able to determine whether these hybernated specimens live until 

 the end of the season, or deposit eggs during early summer and then die, but so far as 

 I have observed, their shrilling almost entirely ceases during July. In the beginning of 

 August a few may be heard, and by the middle of the month they are again in full chorus, 

 appearing to be more numerous than in the earlier part of the season. Harris says, 

 " The old insects, for the most part, die on the approach of cold weather ; but a few 

 survive the winter by sheltering themselves under stones, or in holes secure from the 

 access of water." This may perhaps be the case in Massachusetts, where, I believe, Dr. 

 Harris observed them ; my own experience is that they hybernate as larvaa, that is, about 

 half grown and without wings. About the end of August, and during September, the 

 field crickets lay their eggs. At this time they leave their hiding places and may be 

 seen in great numbers in the fields, particularly on dry hill sides, where the herbage is 

 short and scanty. When about to deposit her eggs, the female walks slowly along, 

 stopping at intervals and feeling the ground with her ovipositor ; when a suitable spot 

 is found, she raises her abdomen, inclining the ovipositor downwards until its point 

 touches the earth, into which, by steady and continued pressure, it is gradually forced 

 until completely buried, when the eggs are deposited. 



Beside our native species of Gryllus, we have the well-known house cricket, Gryllus 

 domesticus, which, like its cousins the cockroaches, has crossed the ocean. 



This species love3 warm quarters, making its home in kitchen3 and bakehouses 

 feeding on crumbs and scraps, not being particular as to diet. During the day it hides 



