Mole cricket

“ The most curious of all the crickets is the mole cricket. The mole cricket is the stoutest and largest of all the cricket family. He takes his name from the little furry, mouse-like animal that burrows in the ground,—the mole. ”

“ The two fore-feet of this insect, placed very near the head, are short and broad, and, like those of the mole, are contrived to help the insect in burrowing under ground. The Mole Cricket is very destructive in gardens, as it attacks the roots of young plants, and causes them soon to rot and die. The female forms a nest of clammy earth, in which she lays from two to four hundred eggs. The nest is carefully closed up on every side, to secure the brood from the incursions of grubs and other subterraneous depredators. ”

“ The mole cricket is something like the mole in shape, and in the shape of its front feet. It is very like the mole in its ways.
Mole crickets in the larva and pupa state are like their parents in looks and habits. They lack only the wings. The wings of mole crickets are short. They open and close them at each stroke when they fly. This makes them fly with a wave-like motion. ”

“ The Trinidad ground is infested with mole crickets, and the wicket is so impossible that, unless matting is put down, cricket will languish, for no young cricketer can be taught to bat really well on such a wicket, and a bowler may be in danger of thinking himself a good one, when in fact he is only just beginning to bowl. ”

“ There are three descriptions of cricket common in Great Britain—the house-cricket, the field-cricket, and the mole-cricket; of these the two first are very similar, but that the former is of a somewhat yellow shade, and the latter rather brown. Their heads are very large in proportion to their bodies, and are round. They are furnished with two large eyes and three small ones, of a light yellow color, placed rather high in their heads. The female has a hard, long spine at the extremity of her body, thick at the end, and composed of two sheaths, which contain two laminæ ”

“ Mr. Mole Cricket declared. “I’ve lived my whole life in the dirt. And I like it too well to leave it.”
Chirpy Cricket thought his cousin was the queerest person he had ever met.
“How do you get anything to eat?” he inquired.
Mr. Mole Cricket seemed to consider that an odd question.
“Bless you!” he exclaimed. “There’s everything to eat in the ground—everything anybody could possibly want. Wherever I tunnel I find tender roots. You know Farmer Green grows fine vegetables here. Indeed that’s one reason I live under his garden.”
“If that’s one reason, what’s another?” Chirpy Cricket asked him. ”

“ It is easy to understand that an insect which undermines land in this way must cause great damage to cultivation. Whether the crops serve it for food or not, they are not the less destroyed by its underground burrowings. Lands infested by the mole cricket are recognisable by the colour of the vegetation, which is yellow and withered; and the rubbish which these miners heap up at the side of the openings leading to their galleries, resembling mole-hills in miniature, betray their presence to the farmer. ”

“ Sometimes there are three hundred of them, and you can imagine what a lively family they are when they hatch.”
“I should like to see them,” said Ruth, for it was quite impossible for her to imagine so many baby crickets together.
“Well, it is a sight, I assure you,” answered the little cricket. “Did you ever come across my cousin the mole cricket? She is very large and quite clever. She makes a wonderful home with many halls around her nest. She is always on guard too so that no one may touch her precious eggs. ”

“ They all think that they have done much in ascending to old Aldrovandus; but we have just shown that the history of the Mole-cricket commences before him and Mouffet, and even before Ferrante; for if the application which we have made of the word Biurus be, as it appears, exact, we must refer to ancient times for the first mention of this insect.
The Mole-cricket causes great devastation, especially in the southern parts of Europe; it digs holes and constructs subterranean galleries, and cuts and detaches the roots of plants by means of its fore feet, which are shaped like saws ”

“ Chirpy Cricket took great pains never to spend another day in hiding in Farmer Green’s garden. He was afraid there might be trouble if he saw more of his cousin. And he couldn’t forget those powerful forelegs and enormous feet of Mr. Mole Cricket! They looked very dangerous.
The longer Chirpy pondered over his brief meeting with Mr. Mole Cricket, the more firmly he made up his mind that he had been in great danger and that he had 64 been lucky to escape alive. Everybody knew that Grandfather Mole was a terrible-tempered person when aroused. He would rush at anybody, big or little. ”

“ Mole Cricket. If his wife’s feet are anything like his they’d be a fearful pair to quarrel with. And even if they hadn’t quarrelled with me, they might have had trouble between themselves. And if I happened to get in their way it would certainly have gone hard with me.”
Harmless Mr. Mole Cricket never knew what a monster his cousin Chirpy Cricket 65 believed him to be. When he reached home he told his wife that he had met a queer little cousin who spent much of his time above ground and lived on grass. ”

“ The mole-cricket ejects, when pursued or tormented, a blackish liquid, whose etherealised odour reminds one of the peculiar smell of certain rotten apples. The female, larger [277] than the male, lays her eggs, which are, comparatively speaking, of a tolerable size (Fig. 62, b) , at some depth underground. The young, when hatched, resemble their parents, except that they are white, and possess merely the rudiments of wings.
If the mole-cricket, in its subterranean progress, encounters any roots, it cuts them with its mandibles, not to feed upon them, but to get rid of an obstacle ”

“ It lives in the ground, just as moles do, and like them it is provided with a special tool for digging in the earth and cutting the roots that bar its way. Have you ever noticed a mole’s fore feet? They are broadly shovel-shaped and furnished with strong claws. The mole-cricket’s fore feet are very much like them, being short and wide and edged with saw-teeth. With this pair of powerful tools the insect digs its subterranean tunnels. ”

“ Can't you play more softly?" {291}
THIS IS THE MOLE CRICKET
"I'll try," said Winnie.
"Please do," said the Great Green Grasshopper's {292} wife. "There, I knew what would happen. See what you've done."
This is the Field Cricket
The Field Cricket had all but disappeared, and there were only two little black legs sticking out of his hole. ”

“ Their forefeet are broad and turned outward for digging like the iront feet of moles. But the mole crickets differ from real moles in having wings, and sometimes they leave their burrows at night and fly about, being occasionally attracted to lights. Their front wings are short and lie fiat on the back over the base of the abdomen, but the long hind wings are folded lengthwise over the back and project beyond the tip of the body. Notwithstanding the gloomy nature of their habitat, the male mole crickets sing. ”

“ A third family, the Gryllidæ, contains the crickets—burrowing mole crickets, ordinary black crickets dwelling in the herbage, and several kinds of tree crickets that look like ghosts of their kind. All add to the noise of a summer evening by rubbing the roughened surface of their wing covers together—chirping to ears that are situated in the shins of the listening cricketesses. ”

“ They are not only tumbling into the river all along shore, but into this sandy gully, to escape from which is a Sisyphus labor. I have not sat there many minutes, watching two foraging crickets which have decided to climb up two tall and slender weeds almost bare of branches, as a man shins up a liberty pole sometimes, when I find that one has climbed to the summit of my knee. They are incessantly running about on the sunny bank. Their still larger cousins, the mole crickets, are creaking loudly and incessantly all along the shore. ”

“ When disturbed out of their nests, the mole-crickets appear dull and helpless; and during the day time they seldom use their wings, but, as night advances, they become very sprightly, and often wander on long excursions. When the weather is very fine, about the middle or end of April, as the evening draws on, they amuse themselves by making a low, dull, jarring noise, which is not very unlike the chattering of the fern-owl or goat-sucker, and which they continue without intermission for a long time. ”

“ Mole crickets in the south of France and in Germany do great harm to the pea and bean crops. They have been known to destroy one-sixth, and even one-fourth, of a crop of young corn by eating off the roots. ”

“ In the hot summer it goes out of doors, and frequents the walls of gardens, but returns again to its place by the hearth on the first approach of cold, where, should the heat of the fire be withdrawn, it becomes dormant. It is nocturnal, coming forth at the evening twilight in search of food, which consists of bread crumbs and other refuse of the kitchen. The field cricket (Gryllus campestris) is a larger insect than the former, and of a darker colour. ”

“ It is a lucky sign to have crickets in the house. Grose says it is held extremely unlucky to kill a cricket, perhaps from the idea of its being a breach of hospitality, this insect taking refuge in houses. The voice of a cricket, says the “Spectator,” has struck more terror than the roaring of a lion.
The following line occurs in Dryden’s and Lee’s “Œdipus:”
“Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death.”
Melton says that “it is a signe of death to some in that house where crickets have been many yeares, if on a sudden they forsake the chimney.” ”

“ Of those forms we still possess a few, as 'rounders' and 'stool-ball' and we can also study degraded shapes of cricket, which naturally revert to the early germs of the pastime as degenerate human types throw back to the monkey. ”

“ The only hope of making cricket as really attractive and useful to young boys as it might be, is to reduce the size of the ball as well as the size of the bat, and keep the full distance. At present a diminutive brat pummels the big ball with all his might, and it barely reaches cover point; his best half-volley drive goes meekly into mid-on’s hands—or, rather, it would, if the ball were not too big to get there. Not only is his hitting spoilt: the throwing becomes painful, and the bowling in spite of the short distance strains the shoulder. ”

“ This exchange is all the easier because, as we have seen, the Sphex leaves her victim while she goes down her burrow, and the audacious tameness, which actually allows her to take from your fingertips, or even off your hand, the cricket stolen from her and now offered, conduces most happily to a successful result of the experiment by allowing the details of the drama to be closely observed.
It is easy enough to find living crickets; one has only to lift the first stone, and you find them, crouched and sheltering from the sun. ”

“ A cricket that has climbed up one of the tender shoots strikes a low note, which is like the drowsy chirrup of a roosting bird. It is the first touch of a fiddler in the night's orchestra, and will soon be taken up by thousands of other crickets, bell-tinkling toads, croaking frogs in the valley, and the solitary owl that hoots from the hills. ”

“ The Spider alone was unhurt; so he merely shook himself, and sat chuckling at the discomfiture of the others.
After doing all this mischief, the Kettle subsided, with many meek apologies.
"We can give you references enough, if that is all you want," said the Wasp snappishly; "but we had better leave, I think, comrades, before we have another hot bath. My hind leg is completely disabled." [Pg 12]
"Do not go," urged the Cricket. "We should enjoy your society so much, I am sure, when we become better acquainted." ”

“ The Sphex returns, looks round, and hurries to seize her too distant prey. I am all attention. Nothing on earth would induce me to give up my part in the drama which I am about to witness. The frightened cricket springs away. The Sphex follows closely, reaches it, darts upon it. Then there is a struggle in the dust when sometimes conqueror, sometimes conquered is uppermost or undermost. Success, equal for a moment, finally crowns the aggressor. In spite of vigorous kicks, in spite of bites from its pincer-like jaws, the cricket is felled and stretched on its back. ”

“ There is no known preventive for the borer, except to catch it before it has gone too far. It always works around the joints, and when it has completed the circle, it commences to bore down the center of the branch, and sometimes, but very seldom, the stem. The male cricket goes for the roots, but does the least damage; if it has gone too far to be dug out, the best way is to plug up its hole as far as possible with clay. ”

“ It is constantly undergoing improvements and repairs until the owner’s death.
When April ends the Cricket’s song begins; at first in rare and shy solos, but soon in a general symphony in which each clod of turf boasts its performer. I am more than inclined to place the Cricket at the head of the spring choristers. In our waste-lands, when the thyme and lavender are gaily flowering, the Crested Lark rises like a lyrical rocket, his throat swelling with notes, and from the sky sheds his sweet music upon the fallows. Down below the Crickets chant the responses. ”

“ There is another kind of cricket that is a great deal smaller, and sings much longer, in an undertone. Its wings are always yellow or brown; but we do not know much about crickets of this kind, except that their habits are similar to those of the large ones, and that they are very numerous. ”