THE GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS 



males have short stubs of front wings that retain the 

 stridulating organs and enable them to sing with a brisk 

 chirp. 



Still another large subfamily of the Tettigoniidae is the 



Fig. 32. The Coulee cricket, Peranabrus scabricollis^ male and female, an 

 example of a cricketlike member of the katydid family 



Rhadophorinae, including the insects known as "camel 

 crickets." But these are all wingless, and therefore silent. 



The Cricket Family 



The chirp of the cricket is probably the most familiar 

 note of all orthopteran music. But the only cricket com- 

 monly known to the public is the black field cricket, the 

 lively chirper of our yards and gardens. His European 

 cousin, the house cricket, is famous as the "cricket on the 

 hearth" on account of his fondness for fireside warmth 

 which so stimulates him that he must express his animation 

 in song. This house cricket has been known as Gryllus 

 since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and his 

 name has been made the basis for the name of his family, 

 the Gryllidae, for there are numerous other crickets, some 

 that live in trees, some in shrubbery, some on the ground, 

 and others in the earth. 



The crickets have long slender antennae like those of the 

 katydids, and also stridulating organs on the bases of the 

 wings, and ears in their front legs. But they differ from the 

 katydids in having only three joints in their feet (Fig. 

 17 C). The cricket's foot in this respect resembles the foot 



[55] 



