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Chapter XIII. 



Structures of Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Beetles. 



Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, and beetles are, in 

 many respects, no less interesting than the insects 

 whose architectural proceedings we have already de- 

 tailed. They do not, indeed, build any edifice for 

 the accommodation of themselves or their progeny ; 

 but most, if not all of them, excavate retreats in walls 

 or in the ground. 



The house-cricket (Acheta domestica) is well 

 known for its habit of picking out the mortar of 

 ovens and kitchen fire-places, where it not only 

 enjoys warmth, but can procure abundance of food. 

 It is usually supposed that it feeds on bread. M. 

 Latreille says it only eats insects, and it certainly 

 thrives well in houses infested by the cockroach; 

 but we have also known it eat and destroy lamb's- 

 wool stockings, and other woollen stuffs, hung near 

 a fire to dry. It is evidently not fond of hard labour, 

 but prefers those places where the mortar is already 

 loosened, or at least is new, soft, and easily scooped 

 out ; and in this way it will dig covert ways from 

 room to room. In summer, crickets often make ex- 

 cursions from the house to the neighbouring fields, 

 and dwell in the crevices of rubbish, or the cracks 

 made in the ground by dry weather, where they chirp 

 as merrily as in the snuggest chimney-corner. Whe- 

 ther they ever dig retreats in such circumstances, we 

 have not ascertained; though it is not improbable 

 they may do so for the purpose of making nests. 



