
ORTHOPTERA. 295 
much smaller than the above, and is met with in great numbers 
}in the woods, where its leaps sometimes produce the noise of drops 
\of rain. 
The female crickets have a long auger, with which they deposit 
) their egos, of which each one lays, towards the middle of the 
}summer, about three hundred, in the cracks and crevices of the soil. 
|The larve pass the winter in that state, and do not become pupze 
and perfect insects till the following summer. 
Mouftfet relates that, in certain regions of Africa, the crickets are 
j objects of commerce. They are brought up in little cages, as we 
ido Canary birds, and sold to the inhabitants, who like to hear 
jtheir amorous chant. This song lulls them to sleep. It is said 
jthat certain peoples eat these insects. In France they are sought 




Fig. 305.—Mole Cricket (Gryllo-talpa vulgaris). 
i 
lafter as baits for fishing, and are used also in menageries for 
feeding small reptiles. Next to Gryllus come the genera 
| canthus, insects of the south of Europe, which live on plants, 
and which one often sees fluttering about flowers ; Spheria, which 
live in ant-hills; Platydactylus; and, lastly, the Mole Cricket 
(Gryllo-talpa), whose habits deserve attention for awhile. 













