434 
Observations on the variuus Insects 
M'ith a sharp semi-ovate tootli inside at the base ; hinder pair long and 
incrassated ; shanks of fore-legs trigonate, palmated, the apex being cut 
into 4 very strong spreading teeth ; posterior long and spiny outside 
and at the apex : feet triarticulate, anterior compressed and trigonate, 
attached to the outside of the tibia, basal joint large, and with the 2nd 
forming 2 horny acute teeth, 3rd small and ovate, terminated by 2 
straight unequal claws ; in the other feet the 1st and 3rd joints are 
elongated, and the 2nd is very short ; the claws are curved and sharp. 
In June, or at the commencement of summer, the female con- 
structs in the vicinity of her burrows a nest half a foot deep in the 
earth; it is 2 inches long and 1 deep, formed like an oval bottle, 
with a curved neck which communicates with the surface, and 
the inside surface is smoothed for the reception of the eggs, which 
amount to 300 or 400, and after thej are deposited the female 
accurately closes the entrance. These eggs are about the size of 
turnip-seeds, but oval, shining, and brownish-yellow. The young 
hatch in July and August, or about a month after the eggs are laid : 
they immediately begin to feed upon the tender roots of the sur- 
rounding plants, whether corn, grass, or vegetables, and when 
these fail, then they go further in search of food ; but subsequently 
to their first moult, which takes place a month after they emerge 
from the egg, the family disperses. 
When the mole -crickets first hatch, they look very much like 
black ants, and are not more than one-eighth of an inch long; at 
this period they have no wings, they go on growing and moulting 
until they are 1^ inch long, when rudiments of the wing-cases 
appear, and in this pupa state they remain feeding and increasing 
in bulk until the fifth or last skin is cast off, and the perfect- 
winged insect is developed and fit to propagate the species. This 
metamorphosis takes place at the close of spring ; they live 
through the summer, pairing and laying eggs, and pass the winter 
in the earth, burying themselves deeper as the cold and fiost 
affect them ; there protected, they remain from October or No- 
vember until the warm days of March again invite them to the 
surface, when they may be traced by the heaps of earth they 
throw up like little mole-hills ; at other periods their presence 
may be detected by their operations, for yellow withered patches 
deface the pastures, and similar decay is indicated amongst the 
garden vegetables. Great doubts have been entertained as to 
their chirping, but Latreillc states that after sunset they make a 
noise strong and shrill enough, which is said to be caused by the 
friction of the nervures of one wing-case over the other, and we 
learn from Mr. R. H. Lewis that the Mole-cricket is a very noisy 
insect in Van Diemen's Land, This song or call, like that of 
the crickets, is produced by the males to invite the females from 
their burrows, to prepare for the peopling of new colonics. 
