On Plate VII. Fig. 5, is shown the odd-looking Mole Cricket {Oryllotal'pa vulgaris), one of the largest insects mhabiting England, not only being larger than most of our insects, but stouter and more muscular. The name of Mole Cricket is a very appropriate one, for the insect is not only a Cricket, but is shaped wonderfully like the mole, and has many of the habits of that animal, as we shall presently see There is but one genus and one species of Mole Cricket inhabiting England, and there is no possibility of mistaking the existence. The tibL of«

flrr the foie-legs are developed into a stout, broad, flat, diggin.. apparatus, armed with sharp and strong claws, the whole limb being almost exactly like that of the mole. Two views of this extraor(hnary apparatus are given in Woodcut XXV., the unner smface being drawn at Fig. 9, and the under smface at Fig b The latter figure shows how the small feet and claws are tucked away under the broad, while the insect is palmated tibia, so as not to be injured employed in diff^nn Oih.v the theinItL giveSe ig. ^ representing the labium and j the maxilla with its palpus!

In these insects the female does not possess any ovipositor, and the only method of determining the sex without chssection is by examining the structure of the elytra, the males possessing the notched nervure, and the females being without it. The sound produced by the Mole Cricket is neither so loud nor so shrill as that of the domestic Cricket, but yet it has been produced artificially by rubbing together the elytra of a newly killed insect. The males, by the way, seem to be rarer than the females.

In consequence of this sound, it is called by several popidar names, varying according to the district in which it is found. In some places, for example, it is called the Cimnii-woRif, or Jaee-woem, or Eve-Churr, while in others it is named the Croaker. Its hard, shelly limbs and general conformation have also gained for it the name of Earth Crab. The colour of this insect is brown above, with a peculiarly velvety surface, and the elytra are much paler, with brown nervures.

The Mole Cricket is, as its structure shows, one of the burrowers, and it carries out, though to a greater extent, many ot the habits of the Field Cricket, and prefers similar ground, so that it is necessarily a local insect. Loose sandy places are the best spots wherein to find the Mole Cricket, which can generally be captured by the simple device of pushing a flexible twig or long grass-stem into its burrow, and then digging round the twig. There is a village called Besselsleigh, a few miles from Oxford, where the Mole Cricket is tolerably plentiful, and from that place Dr. Kidd obtained the specimens which he employed when writing his admirable monograph on the insect. The soil there is loose dry sand, heaped in many places in hillocks

partly overgrown with grass, and, as it is dry, the sand and falls back into the holes made by the spade. Yet, Gilbert White, in his ‘ Selborne,’ states that the Mole Cricket haunts most moist meadows, and frequents the sides of ponds and banks of streams, performing all its functions in a swampy, wet soil.

The normal food of the INIole Cricket is of a vegetable character, and in some places where the insects are common, they do much damage to the root-crops, and even destroy garden cabbages, and grass, by devouring their roots. Tliey flowers, however, eat raw meat, and on occasions become cannibals. will,

Dr. Kidd mentions in his monograph that he often found the

hard and horny parts of various insects when dissecting the

digestive apparatus ; and another student of this curious insect has stated that he fed a Mole Cricket for several months on ants. Like other Crickets, the males are very quarrelsome, and fight to the death, the victor always eating his conquered adversary. The males appear to be much scarcer than the females, and in them. the right elytron laps over the left, whereas in the females the reverse seems to be the case. The male may also be known by the arrangement of the nervures of the elytra and the notches of the large nervure of the right wing-case.

The eggs of the Mole Cricket are deposited under ground in a chamber about the size and shape of a hen’s egg cut longitudinally. This cell is dug near the surface of the ground, so that the warmth of the sun can penetrate through the thin covering of earth, while the eggs are perfectly concealed from any ordinary foe. The eggs vary in number from one to four hundred, and are a greyish-yellow in colour. The wings being small in proportion to the size of the body, the flight of the Mole Cricket is in a succession of dips, like that of our ordinary short-winged birds.

We now come to another family, namely, the Gryllidse, in which are included the great bulk of the British Grasshoppers.

he word Gryllidm is taken from the Greek, and signifies ‘ a miirmurer,’ in allusion to the familiar sound which is produced by the males of most though not of all the species.

In this family the antennae are long and very slender ; the females are furnished with a sword-shaped ovipositor, and the wing covers of the males have a talc-like spot at their bases. Mostly both wings are furnished with these spots, but m some specms there is only one spot. There is, however, one character which is common to both sexes, namely, the disposition of the wings and their covers, which, when the insect is at rest, are laid along the back and elevated in the middle like a slanting roof. These wing-covers end of the body. often extend far beyond the

Our best type of these insects is the Great Green Grass- HorrER {Acrida viridissima). This handsome insect ],as

always been a favoui'ite of mine, partly on account of its beauty, partly on account of its habits, and partly on account of its size, which renders it an admirable object for the entomologist who is studying that most absorbing branch of science, the comparative anatomy of insects. Moreover, the structure of the internal organism is so clearly marked, that its dissection is quite an easy task, compared with that of many insects. A figure of the Grreat Green Grasshopper is given in the frontispiece, a female insect being shown in the act of depositing her eggs.

When living, this insect is of the most beautiful leaf-green, but, unfortunately, this colour is very evanescent, and no sooner is the grasshopper dead than the colour begins to fade. Indeed, the hue of a living and dead specimen is as different as that of a living and dead leaf, the one being light-green and the other yellowish-brown, even becoming black in some places. I do not know any mode of preserving for any length of time the soft green hue of this beautiful insect, and regret this the more, because the creatures, which would form such beautiful objects in a cabinet, actually become unsightly, and can only be valued for scientific purposes.

This is a tree-loving insect, and is seldom found in the grass. When I was engaged in studying the internal structiu-e of insects, I procured my specimens of the Great Green Grasshopper from a hazel hedge in a garden just on the outskirts of Oxford, the insects having for some reason or other taken an extraordinary fancy to this hedge. The young entomologist must, however, bear in mind that for the Great Green Grasshopper to be in a particular tree is one thing, and that to find it is another ; for its colour harmonises so exactly with that of the leaves that no small practice is required before it can be The cry of this insect is a loud one, and when (detected. the shrilling sound, it clings tightly with its it produces feet to the object on which it is standing, presses its body and seems to shudder as long as the sound slightly downwards, lasts. of the female insect is very long and sword-

The ovipositor closely examined, is found to consist of shaped, and, on being which fit against each other when the instruseveral blades, ment is not in use, and can be separated to allow the egg to

pass to its extremity, and thus be emitted. In consequence

of the shape of the ovipositor, some entomologists invented the

generic name Phasgonura, or sword-tailed, and placed in it

this and allied insects. When the young are hatched, an event which takes place in the spring, they are very tiny, hut are shyed much like their parents, except that there are no wings, and in the females there is no sign of the ovipositor. This remarkable appendage does not appear until the larvge is seven ^ iiicreases in size with every change of skTn should possess sufficient skill and time, he should dissect a few specimens of this insect, for the purpose of studying the internal structure. Among other points, one of the most interesting is the ‘ gizzard.’ Before it is opened, it ooks very like a swelling of the digestive tube, but if it be carefully slit horizontally, and spread flat, a number of narrow, parallel bands will be seen. On placing one of these bands under the microscope, it will be seen to consist of a number of very small teeth, arranged with perfect

a mirably regularity, calculated for triturating morsels of the leaves lowed. As for the jaws themselves, their power may be easilv ascertained for the insect is generally given to biting f and if the searcher after knowledge will pnt his finger in th! way of this Grasshopper’s jaws, he will at once be convinced both of the shm-pness and strength of the feel it necessary to repeat jaws. Moreover, he will not the experiment.

alM to is closely the Great Green Grasshopper. This is the Ttipp Gbasshopper {Meconema vaHa), an insect which n. 7 ^ » is a denizen of trees ratli than a Ltr^n^^or; It IS to be found on the oak, and the best It IS to beat the mode of obtaining branches and catch the fallino- togeets in f sheet or net held beneath the boughs. be much Otherwise tW w ll difficulty in detecting its presence itlTril

of these insects is rare in England, though plentiful Anothek It is known by the name of Wautiuteii, on the Continent. bite is supposed by the Swedish peasant to have because its the wart. Its scientific name is Decthe effect of destroying ticus griseus. have this effect, for there is no

Very probably it really does and mysterious excrescences do doubt that these unpleasant and disappear witliout any assignable make their appearance before writing this account, I overreason. Only a few days tradesmen’s boys, who, after heard a dialogue between some were having a chat under cover of a the manner of their kind, duties. One of them made instead of going about their hedge, respecting t>ie warts with remarks to the others some jeering The boy replied that he did .^dlich his hands were covered. as he was going to have them charmed not care for the warts, and appealed to another away next morning, bee with warts, but that he had his hands had been covered them away for twopence. _ He to an old man who charmed of his assertion ; and certmnly, held out his hands in proof been the state of his hands, there whatever may formerly have was then not a wart upon them. that scarcely any two wart, is remarkable, by the way,

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