House Cricket. - 
-INSECTS. ■ 
-GRYLLIDiB. 
243 
to death. Out of one so bruised we took a multitude 
of eggs, which were long and narrow, of a yellow colour, 
and covered with a very tough skin. Where violent 
methods will not avail, more gentle means will often 
succeed, and so it proved in the present case ; for though 
a spade be too boisterous and rough an implement, a 
pliant stalk of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, 
will probe their windings to the bottom, and quickly 
bring out the itdiabitant ; and thus the humane inquirer 
may gratify his curiosity without injuring the object 
of it. It is remarkable that, though these insects are 
furnished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs for 
leaping, like grasshoppers, yet when driven from their 
holes they show no activity, but crawl along in a shift- 
less manner, so as easily to be taken ; and again, 
though provided with a curious apparatus of wings, 
yet they never exert them when there seems to be the 
greatest occasion. The males only make that shrilling 
noise, perhaps out of rivalry and emulation, as is the 
case with many animals which exert some sprightly 
note during their breeding time ; it is raised by a brisk 
friction of one wing against the other. They are soli- 
tary beings, living singly, male or female, each as it may 
happen ; but there must be a time when the sexes have 
some intercourse, and then the wings may be useful, 
perhaps during the hours of night. When 
the males meet they will fight fiercely, as I 
found by some which I put into the crevices 
of a dry stone wall, where I should have 
been glad to have made them settle ; for 
though they seemed distressed by being taken 
out of their knowledge, yet the first that got 
possession of the chinks would seize on any 
that were obtruded upon them, with a vast 
row of serrated fangs. With their strong 
jaws, toothed like the shears of a lobster’s 
claws, they perforate and round their curious 
regular cells, having no fore claws to dig, like the 
Mole-cricket.” 
They never offer to defend themselves when taken 
up in the hand, although they have such formidable 
jaws. They eat indiscriminately of such plants as 
grow near their holes, and White observed that they 
dropped their dung on a little platform close at hand. 
In the day-time they seem to keep close to their homes, 
never stirring more than two or three inches from them. 
They chirp all night and day at the entrance of these 
burrows from the middle of May to the middle of July, 
and are particularly vigorous in hot weather, making 
the hills echo with their noise. 
THE HOUSE CRICKET (^Acheta domesticd). Many 
who are not troubled with this insect, fancy that it is 
lucky to have them in a house ; and where there are 
only two or three, there is certainly something cheer- 
ful in the sound of “the cricket on the hearth.” They 
are of a pale colour, and are particular!}'' fond of 
warmth, preferring kitchens and bakers’ ovens. As 
would be inferred, they are a thirsty race, like the black 
beetles ; and where they abound, many may be taken 
by leaving on the floor shallow pans of water, or other 
fluid. At times they increase to such a degree as to 
become a perfect nuisance; flying to the lights, and 
dashing into people’s faces. 
Acheta Smeathmanni. Mr. Smeathman, who made 
large collections of insects, and observations on their 
habits, when he resided at Sierra Leone shortly after 
its formation as a British colony, informed Drury, his 
correspondent in London, that a species of Acheta 
was used as food. The children there in his time 
were engaged at the proper season in digging the 
females of this Acheta out of the ground when they 
were full of eggs. On these they make an agreeable 
repast. They roast the whole insect, but only eat the 
eggs, which they deem to be very delicate food. 
Family— GBYLIJD^. 
The insects of this family have very long antennse, 
and in the female the ovipositor is very long. Fig. 
Fig. 14S 
Decticus verrucivorns. 
148 represents the female of the Decticus verruci- 
vorus depositing her eggs in a hole in the grounfi. 
This insect is met with in the south of England, and 
w'as so called by the great Swedish naturalist, from a 
habit of his countrymen in employing it to bite at the 
warts on their hands. These peasants suppose, and 
very likely they are right, that the fluid ejected by the 
Decticus corrodes the warts. I have seen very com- 
monly in the Isle of Wight, and in the borders of 
Berks and Oxfordshire, the fine large Phasgomira 
viridisshna, a big insect, whose bite assuredly is not 
to be despised. 
I have described a very large New Zealand Tree 
cricket, the Deinacrida heteracanlha. It is a large, 
strong-jawed, strong spiny-legged creature, whose bite 
is much dreaded by the Maouries. 
There are ten British species, arranged in the genera 
Odontura, Meconema, Xiphidium, Phasgonura, Thara- 
notrizon, Platycleis, and Decticus. It is, however, in 
the warmer countries of the world, that these creatures 
abound. Some of them are very gigantic, especially 
some from New Guinea and the adjoining islands. 
The Anostostoma, a genus established by Mr. G. 
R. Gray, is a most formidable-looking insect. Its 
