166 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
sistless march ; they were especially destructive to young wheat and corn 
in early summer. 
Food of the cricket. — As may be seen by the account of the internal 
structure of the cricket, especially of the organs of digestion, the cricket 
must be a very voracious creature. The jaws are large, armed with 
teeth, and adapted for cutting leaves from twigs and for cutting grass. 
The crop is very capacious, and in the specimens examined was stuffed 
with vegetable matter in a partially digested state. Mr. Thomas, in his 
journey from Ogden, Utah, to Fort Hall, noticed these crickets in great 
abundance along the route in the middle of June. From Worm Creek 
to Bear River the large brown cricket (Anabrus simplex) was very abun- 
dant, in some places almost covering the ground. He noticed on Worm 
Creek this cricket climbing up the bushes and eating the Cicadae, which 
were equally abundant. Indeed, this appeared to be a habit, the Anabr us 
devouring the Cicada- whenever they could catch them. They are ex- 
ceedingly voracious, not only eating the Cicadae with avidity, but they 
even attack the crippled and dying of their own species, and devour 
them so far as they can manage the tough integument. They also de- 
vour greedily the droppings of horses. 
On the other hand, the cricket has been used as food by the Ute In- 
dians of Utah, and still is by the Pi-Utes in Nevada, who eat them alive 
after pulling off the legs. They also roast them with hot stones in the 
ground and then eat them. 
Enemies and internal parasites. — Though these large insects are pro- 
tected by a dense, tough skin, it appears from the observations of Mr. 
Thomas that they are eaten by hawks, and it has been frequently ob- 
served that the gulls of the Great Salt Lake collect upon the benches or 
terraces of the lake and devour them. So useful are these birds that the 
Mormons once passed a law forbidding the destruction of gulls, fixing a 
penalty for the offense. When they live near the summits of the mountain 
the ptarmigan feed upon them, as Colonel Berthoud informs us that he 
has found the crops of these birds filled with them on the summit of 
Maclellan Mountain, Colorado, during the middle of October. On one 
occasion (June 15, on Worm Creek), when the crickets were so numerous 
that they covered the surfaces of the smaller streams and acequias, a 
large toad was noticed by Mr. Thomas following the stream and eating 
the Anabri or crickets which had fallen therein. 
So far as is known the Anabrus has no insect enemies external or in- 
ternal. They are sometimes, however, tenanted by the hair-worm, which 
lives within the body, coiled around the intestine. This fact was ob- 
served by Dr. Hayden's party at one time while camped in Idaho, on 
Camas Creek, where numbers affected were observed at the creek. The 
habits of the hair-worms have been described in the First Report of this 
Commission (pp. 326-331). 
Breeding habits.— .Few direct observations by naturalists have been 
made on the breeding habits of the Western crickets. The most ex- 
