THE COMMON MOLE-CRICKET. 
149 
(Fig. 68) is, when fully grown, about one inch and a quarter 
in length, of a light bay or fawn color, 
and covered with a very short and vel¬ 
vet-like down. The wing-covers are 
not half the lencrth of the abdomen, and 
the wings are also short, their tips, when 
folded, extending only about one eighth 
of an inch beyond the wing-covers. 
The fore legs are admirably adapted 
for digging, being very short, broad, 
and strong; and the shanks, which are 
excessively broad, flat, and three-sided, 
have the lower side divided by deep 
notches into four finger-like projections, 
that give to this part very much the 
appearance and the power of the hand 
of a mole. From this similarity in 
structure, and from its burrowing habits, 
this insect receives its scientific name of Gryllotdlpa^ derived 
from Gryllus^ the ancient name of the cricket, and Talpa^ 
a mole; and our common species has the additional name 
of hrevipennis^^ or short-winged, to distinguish it fi'om the 
European species, which has much longer wings. Mole- 
crickets avoid the light of day, and are active chiefly during 
the night. They live on the tender roots of plants, and in 
Europe, where they infest moist gardens and meadows, they 
often do great injury by burrowing under the turf, and 
cutting off the roots of the grass, and by undermining and 
destroying, in this way, sometimes whole beds of cabbages, ' 
beans, and flowers. In the West Indies, extensive ravages 
have been committed in the plantations of the sugar-cane by 
another species, Gryllotalpa didactyla^ which has only two 
* Serville, “ Orthopt^res,” p. 308.2 
[ 2 It was previously described by Bunueister, under the name G. borealis, and 
this name must be applied to it and retained. It was known to Catesby, who 
figures it in his “ Natural History of Carolina.” — Uhlek.] 
