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anatomy of the mole-cricket. 
two following facts attest in the tribe of insects to which 
the mole^-cricket belongs a remarkable degree of voracity, 
and an equally remarkable power of abstaining from food. 
My friend Dr. Macartney, of Dublin, informs me that he 
' has known a gryllus devour a portion of its own body : on 
the other hand, my friend Mr. Buckland, of this University, 
gave me, at the commencement of the present summer, a 
living gryllotalpa, which had been confined during nine or 
ten months in a tin case, containing a small quantity of garden 
mould, without the possibility of having met with any other 
nourishment than such as that portion of mould might be 
supposed to contain. 
External characters of the perfect gryllotalpa. 
In this, as in the case of every other animal with whose 
habits of life we are acquainted, we see a perfect accommo- 
dation in form and structure to the circumstances in which 
the individual is naturally placed. Destined like the common 
mole to live beneath the surface of the earth, and to exca- 
vate a passage for itself through the soil which it inhabits, 
the gryllotalpa is furnished like the mole, witli limbs parti-, 
cularly calculated for burrowing ; with a skin which effec- 
tually prevents the adhesion of the moist earth through which 
it moves ; and with exactly that form and structure of body, 
by which it is enabled to penetrate the opposing medium 
with the greatest ease. At the same time, in order to prevent 
the necessity of its excavating a track so wide as to admit of 
the body being turned round in case of a desire to retreat, it 
is endued with the power of moving as easily in a retrograde 
as in a progressive direction ; and, apparently to perform the 
