MORSE: ORTHOPTERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 419 
they were hidden, but where it was practically impossible to secure 
them. 
The Mole-cricket doubtless occurs throughout New England, 
having been reported from the island of Anticosti, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, including Nantucket. 
European Mole-cricket. 
Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa (Linnd). 
Gryllus (Acheta) gryllotalpa Linne, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 428 (1758). 
Dark brown above, the fore legs rufous; yellowish brown be- 
neath and on sides of tegmina at base; tegminal veins brownish 
black on a yellowish-brown ground. Entire body covered with a 
short, dense pile. 
This species is at once distinguished from the American Mole- 
cricket by the spined hind tibiae, the extremely large pronotum, 
and the conspicuous blade-shaped (cultriform) process of the 
trochanter of the front legs. 
Measuremenls. 
Body Pronotum Tepmina Wings pass tegmina Hind femora 
Male 39 13.5 16 18 11.5 mm. 
The European ]\Iole-cricket as a New England insect is known 
only from three specimens once in the collection of Nantucket 
insects of the Maria Mitchell Scientific Association of that place. 
The species is unquestionably adventive and was doubtless 
brought over in some stage in the soil with Old World plants of 
which many have been commercially introduced on the island 
and flourish there, among them heather, Scotch broom, and 
pines. It is e\ddently a parallel case with that of the Short- 
winged European Bush-katydid, Leptophyes, likewise found on 
the island. 
Whether it has become fully established (as it is reported to be 
in New Jersey) is another question. If so, it is likely to spread 
to the mainland, and may in time become obnoxious, as it some- 
times is in Europe, through the cutting of the roots of grass and 
other plants while burrowing through the soil. 
The cutting is said by Sharp to be done by the scissors-like 
action of the front tarsi on the tibiae. At first glance this may 
