GRYLLU3. 
411 
its name * from the Angular ftru&ure of its fore legs, 
which are extremely broad and flat, and terminate in fix 
large ferrated claws, fomewhat rcfembling the fore feet 
of a mole. The whole animal is of a brown, duiky co- 
lour, very large, and aftive. It frequently takes up its 
rcfidence in hot-beds, to the great difturbance of the gar. 
dener ; for it digs under ground, like the animal after 
which it is called, committing dreadful havoc among the 
tender roots of the plants that are artificially taifed there. 
It is frequent in France, where the gardeners know it by 
the name of courtilherc. 
The tettigonia, or tribe of grafiioppers, is the next fee 
tion into which the grylli are divided ; and of it, the 
gryilus viridifilmus is the moll remarkable. Its colour 
is a pale green, the antennas fetaceous, and longer than, 
the body. The elytra are clouded, and the wings reti- 
culated ; both extend beyond the body about one third 
of its length. The female carries, at the extremity of 
her abdomen, a kind of ferrated fpine, compofed of two 
laminre, and in fnape broad, and turned up like the blade 
of a cutlafs. Thefe implements are employed by the fe- 
male in digging in the ground, or in wood, holes for the 
reception of her ova ; and this being a function in which 
the male has no lhare, fie is unprovided with the inftru- 
rnents by which it is performed f. 
The female grafhopper poffeffes an amazing fecundity; 
file regularly depofits from four to feven hundred eggs at 
a time The wonderful precautions which fire takes 
for providing them fecurity, and food for the young as 
3 F 2 Icon 
* Gryllo-talpa, Linmeus. 
f Burbut's Gen. Infedt. page 1 15. 
\ Memoir, pour ftrvir a i/Hift, des Infedt. Tome IV, 
