244 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



would have had if moulded by an egg, the walls 

 being neatly smoothed and polished. In this little 

 cell were deposited about a hundred eggs, of the 

 size and form of caraway-comfits, and of a dull tar- 

 nished white colour. The eggs were not very deep, 

 but just under a little heap of fresh mould, and with- 

 in the influence of the sun's heat* The dull tar- 

 nished white colour, however, scarcely agrees with 

 a parcel of these eggs now before us, which are 

 translucent, gelatinous, and greenish. 



Like the eggs and young of other insects, however, 

 those of the mole-cricket are exposed to depredation, 

 and particularly to the ravages of a black beetle 

 which burrows in similar localities. The mother- 

 insect, accordingly, does not think her nest secure 

 till she has defended it, like a fortified town, with 

 labyrinths, intrenchments, ramparts, and covert ways. 

 In some part of these outworks, she stations herself 

 as an advanced guard, and when the beetle ventures 

 within her circumvallations, she pounces upon him 

 and kills him. 



Nest of Hie Mok Cricket. 



The Vield-Cricket. 



Another insect of this family, the field-cricket 



( Acheta campestris), also forms burrows in the 



ground, in which it lodges all day, and comes out 



chiefly about sun-set to pipe its evening song. It is 



* Nat. Hist, of Sel borne, ii. 82. 



