304 
HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. 
[Packard. 
put into the pit at once, he would bite one after the other 
until all were killed, before deciding on which to begin.” 
While the grasshoppers do not construct nests, they have 
various methods of securely depositing their eggs either in 
the earth or in rotten wood or on the surface of leaves. The 
wingless grasshoppers avail themselves of rocks as shelters, 
a notable example being the wingless grasshopper of Mam¬ 
moth and other caves in Kentucky (Fig. 234). The English 
cricket is said by White, in his “ Natural History of Selborn,” 
to form burrows in the earth, but this habit has not yet been 
discovered in our American species. The mole cricket, 
however, is known to burrow in damp places in this country, 
fig. 234 . 
as well as Europe, where it forms an oven-like chamber in 
which it deposits about a hundred eggs. It also constructs 
extensive galleries, similar to, but smaller than, those of the 
mole. The tunnel runs just under the surface of the soil, 
and may be detected by the slightly raised ridge of soil like 
that made by the mole. 
Among the bugs (Hemiptera) the only species we can 
now recall as constructing a domicile is the young of the 
seventeen-year Cicada. Our figure (235, after Riley) repre¬ 
sents the conicaL nests raised above the surface of the soil 
in wet and damp places, rising from four to six inches above 
16 
