has been some douht respecting the native

Although there insects, there is none respecting certain country of these two to Eng and arenndonhtedljindigenons small Cockroacheswhich all live in the open air, and may he eaptmed ^ They rushes, and similar situations. sweep net in long grass, heath, is barely one-thud of the smallest, Blafto erioetomm, One the rest of the ouWoor species is an inch in length, and like colour. It is found among heath. pale yellow in

no example of the Ambnlatoria or Eaptori^

Esglahd possesses which may be pass at once to the Saltatoria, and we ther^re of their hinder le^ and the at once by the length recomised which are large and powerful, of the thighs, great is the development case with nearly all leaping insects. ri • i f Achetid^ or Crickets, of these insects is the

?be Lt family are very long and slender, f^n longer

inlhich theTntennm folded poject far bey whole body. The wings when

than the

males tnere is a laigc there are two

as a send ^icttr

“dta^iSu^^

pair of antennae, and to warn the insect of any danger approaching from behind. The female has an ovipositor, or instrument for depositing the eggs, which in some species is as

long as the body.

The best known English species is the common House

Cbicket {AchetOj domestica), which is so well known as to need

but little description. Still, the reader will find that a careful examination of this insect will be especially interesting and instructive, as it affords an excellent type of the whole family. The peculiar veining, or ‘ neuration ’ as it is scientifically called, ©f the elytra is very well displayed, this being a very important point in the economy of the insect.

Every one is familiar with the shrill noise or ‘ song ’ produced by the Cricket. This sound is not uttered from the mouth, but is caused by the action of the elytra on each other. If the reader will examine one of these elytra taken male from* the insect, he will see that there is a very strong vein or nervure, starting from a thickened spot almost one-third of the length of the elytra from the base. In the right elytron this nervm-e is marked underneath with a series of notches like those of a file, and this is the instrument which produces the sound. When the wings are closed, the right elytron lies over its fellow, so that its notched underside comes upon the upper part of the corresponding nervure in the left elytron. The elytra being put in rapid vibration, the notched nervure plays against its fellow, and a shrill sound is produced strengthened by the form of the elytra, which act as soundingboards The action of the notched nervure is exactly the sJe as that of the iron ‘rasp ’ which used to supply the knocker in place of a old houses. I may as well mention here that the name Acheta is G-reek, and signifies ‘ shrill-sounding ’

The whole arrangement of the nervures, indeed, differs in the tvo sexes; so that a single elytron is sufficient to tell the entomologist the sex of the insect from which it was taken In the Mole Cricket, which will presently be described this peculiarity IS of very great value, as it affords almost the only can be distinguished fromTh from the female. In both sexes the elytra do not-fs Jhev appear to do at a casual glance— merely lie flat on the bac/ Tliere is a very strong longitudinal R nervure running from the’

base to the tip, which divides the elytron into two parts, namely, a tolerably hard part that covers the back, and a softer part that is folded on the sides, and cannot be seen when the insect is viewed from above. On examination with a lens, this nervm-e is shown to be a sort of hinge, and along its inner side the elytron has a very deep fold, so that the soft part can be turned down at right angles with the hard portion.

Up to this point, the elytra are alike in both sexes, but now all resemblance ceases. The male elytron is much broader than the female, and the nervures, instead of simply running in a sort of network composed of delicate threads, are very strong, and converge towards the hard spot which has already been mentioned, merging themselves into the fine network only at the very end of the wing. On removing the right j elytron, and examining it carefully, the serrations which produce | the sound can be seen, if the light be properly adjusted. They ^ but rounded, and their outbnes are waved in this > are not sharp, fashion I. I particularly mention the adjustment of the light, j because the serrations are not easily seen ; and indeed, when I first looked for them, I had some difficulty in finding them. ;

The true wings of the insect are large enough to carry their ; owner through the air, but, like those of the cockchafer, the j are not sufficiently large to prevent it from dor, and stag Beetle, Uilbert White, in his ‘ Selknocking itself against obstacles. XLVI., mentions that the house in which he was borne,’ Letter writing was so infested with Crickets, that they became absolute flying into the flame of the candle and pests at night, even the faces of persons sitting in the room.

Of their mode of flight, he makes the following remarks we have often observed them to fly, when it ‘ In the summer became dusk, out of the windows, and over the neighbouring of activity accounts for the sudden manner roofs. This feat their haunts, as it does for the in which they often leave they come to houses where they were not

method by which It is remarkable that many insects seem never

known before. when they have a mind to shift their

to use their wings but colonies. When in the air, they

quarters, and establish new undoso, in waves or curves, like woodpeckers,

move volatu at every stroke, and so are

opening and shutting their mngs remarks that he ha

always rising or sinking.’ Mr. Westwood

observed that Crickets not only appear suddenly in places

where they had not been seen before, but disappear as suddenly

from places where they had been plentiful.

In this insect, the ovipositor is long, straight, slender, and spear-shaped, being armed at the end with a sharp and enlarged tip, which looks just like the head of the spear, the shaft being represented by the body of the ovipositor. On a closer examination, this apparatus is seen to be double, and, with a little pains, the two halves may be separated from each other. Each half is then seen to be hollow, a deep groove running throughout its whole length, so that when they are placed in apposition, they form a tube along which the egg can pass.

There is, however, a further provision for the deposition of the eggs. Not only is the shaft of the ovipositor hollow, but the enlarged tip is likewise hollow, each half looking very much like the bowl of a spoon. A still closer examination reveals another fact, namely, that each of these spoon-like parts is itself double, being cleft along the centre, and capable of being opened by pressure from within. The reader will now see how beautiful and delicate is this contrivance, which enables the mother insect to introduce her egg into a very small crevice, and, while she is doing so, to hold it with a ' grasp— not as of the two unyielding spoons, but of four elastic springs, which can be relaxed, contracted, at the will of the insect. or entirely loosened,

Crickets are wonderfully quarrelsome animals ; so quarrelsome, indeed, that if they are kept in confinement, they must e kept separately. Of a number which I placed under a glass cover, for the purpose of studying them, not one escaped unhurt. Some had their limbs torn from their bodies, some had their legs bitten completely through, all were more or less antenn®, and several were killed outright,

hether they fight in this manner when at liberty, I cannot say ; but they invariably fight when placed in confinement males and females being alike combative, and alike suffering the penalties of ° warfare.

On Plate VII. Fig. 6, is shown the Field Ceicket (Acheta campestrw), an insect stronger, larger, and bm-Uer than its

domestic relative. The sexes rather differ in colour, the male being black with a yellow patch on the base of the elytra, and the female darkish-brown. As is the case with many other insects, especially of this order, the colours change rapidly after death.

This insect lives in the open air, residing in deep burrows, which it digs in banks where the soil is loose and moderately dry. The holes are tolerably deep, and carefully avoid a straight line, so that the inhabitant cannot be seen while lying at the extremity of the burrow. It is no easy task to get the Field Cricket out of its burrow by force, for the burrow is deep, and the soil mostly so loose that when the spade is introduced into the ground, the earth all falls together, and the Cricket is lost. A much sm-er way of obtaining it is to push a long grass-stem into the hole, for the Field Cricket is a and flexible

irascible being, and is sure to seize the intruding object very strong jaws that it can be drawn out of its so flrmly in its it quits its hold. In France children catch it by hole before end of a horsehair, by way of bait, and then tying a fly to the Cricket, by which it is at once pushing the fly towards the is quite needless, as the bare horseseized. The fly, however, answer just as well, the Cricket being actuated not

hair would by hunger but by anger. _ the Field Cricket is a solitary being, the

As far as is known, sex living separately in their own buiTOW, individuals of each at night. During the daytime, althoug and only meeting will sit and sing at the mouths of their tunnels, the insects wings, nor even exert their power tul they will not use their crawling. This is a very wary insect, legs, except for slow the approach of a footstep, and retreating taking alarm at although the place be one of at once into its buiTow ; so that Field Cricket is pleased to favour those localities which the it is seldom seen though continually heaid. with its presence, that the insect is a quarre -

It has already been mentioned who has mitten a charming account some one. Gilbert White, that when he caught a number of it in his ‘ Selborne,’ remarks to stock an old stone wall mth of Field Crickets, and tried umbrage at the introduction of new them, the flrst comers took them with their poweiful settlers, and invariably attacked to transplant a colony of these jaws. He found also, that

insects was practically impossible, no matter how carefully the habitation was prepared for them. He tried the experiment of boring a number of deep holes in a sloping bank in his garden, and putting into them a number of Field Crickets which he took from their accustomed haunts outside the village. For a time he thought that he had succeeded in his wish, as the insects fed and sang, but they deserted their new habitation by degrees, and at last wholly abandoned it.

Another species of British Cricket is the Wood Cricket (^A.ch&tct sylvcstvis^. This is much smaller than the preceding insect, the head and body not being quite half an inch in length, excluding the antennae and appendages of the abdomen. It may be known by the structure of the elytra, which in the male do not reach to the end of the body, and in the female are only one-third as long as the abdomen. The male is darker and more mottled than the female. This is a very rare insect. Its home is in the Hew Forest, where it has been found near Lyndhurst, under dried leaves in a gravel-pit.

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