ACHETID/E. 
245 
also, Mr. Westwood informs us, in several other 
allied undescribed species in his collection. The 
genus, in fact, seems to contain several groups 
quite as distinct as the section formed by Latreille, 
(Gen. Crust. §c. 111. 99,) for the reception of 
Acheta Italica, and of which Serville has composed 
the genus CEcanthus. A. Arachnoides may be re- 
garded as forming a connecting link between Acheta 
and Phalangopsis of the last named author. 
Typical examples of this family are to be found in 
the well known domestic cricket, field cricket, and 
mole cricket. The two former are referred to the 
genus Acheta, which, besides them, comprehends 
two other British species. The history of the do- 
mestic cricket has been so often given, that it is un- 
necessary to repeat the particulars in this place. It 
occurs in most of the other countries of Europe, as 
well as in Britain. Its song, if such it may be called, 
(for which it is so highly valued in Spain, that the 
peasantry sometimes hang it in little cages by the 
fireside,) is produced by a very simple piece of me- 
chanism, and is peculiar to the male. It consists of 
a kind of rounded areolet, tense and shining, situate 
at the base of each of the tegmina ; the latter over- 
lap each other, the right being uppermost, and the 
left beneath it The nervures of their dorsal portion 
are thicker, and form larger cells in the male than 
in the female.* When the former wishes to produce 
the sound, he elevates the hinder purt of the teg- 
mina in such a manner as to form an acute angle 
* See PI. VI. figs. 8 and 9 \ the former is a dorsal view of 
the male cricket, the latter an under side view of the female- 
