of a dusky brown colour, with a ferruginous cast on the under parts, and is readily distinguished by the extraordinary structure of its fore-legs, which are excessively strong, and furnished with very broad feet, divided into several sharp, claw-shaped segments, with which it is enabled to burrow under ground in the manner of a mole: the lower wings, which, when expanded, are very large, are, in their usual state, so complicated under the very short and small upper-wings or sheaths, that their ends alone appear, reaching, in a sharpened form, along the middle of the back; the abdomen is terminated by a pair of sharp-pointed, lengthened, hairy processes, nearly equalling the length of the antennæ in front, and contributing to give this animal an appearance in some degree similar to that of a Blatta.

The mole-cricket emerges from its subterraneous retreats only by night, when it creeps about the surface, and occasionally employs its wings in flight. It prepares for its eggs an oval nest, measuring about two inches in its longest diameter: this nest is situated a hand's breadth below the surface of the ground: it is accurately smoothed within, and is furnished with an obliquely curved passage leading to the surface. The eggs are about two hundred and fifty or three hundred in number, nearly round, of a deep brownish yellow colour, and of the size of common shot: on the approach of winter, or any great change of weather, these insects are said to remove the nest, by sinking it deeper, so as to secure it from the power of frost; and when the spring commences, again raising it in proportion to the warmth of the season, till at length it is brought so near the surface as to receive the full influence of the air and sunshine: but should unfavourable weather again take place, they again sink the precious deposit, and thus preserve it from danger. The eggs are usually deposited in the month of June or July, and the young are hatched in August. At their first exclusion they are about the size of ants, for which, on a cursory view, they might be mistaken; but on a close inspection are easily known by their broad feet, &c. In about the space of a

* This is affirmed by Goedart, but is disbelieved by Reaumur and Röesel; and it appears from experiment that the nest always requires to be kept in a moist situation; the eggs, if exposed to a dry air, being entirely shrivelled and destroyed.

month they are grown to the length of more than a quarter of an inch; in two months upwards of three quarters; and in three months to the length of more than an inch. Of this length they are usually seen during the close of autumn, after which they retire deep beneath the surface; not appearing again till the ensuing spring. During their growth, they cast their skin three or four times.

The mole-cricket lives entirely on vegetables, devouring the young roots of grasses, corn, and various esculent plants, an dcommits great devastation in gardens. It is found in most parts of Europe, and in the northern parts of Asia and America.

SECTION IV.

Chirping Grasshopper.

Cicada plebeja.-LINN.

THIS is the insect so often commemorated by the ancient poets, and so generally confounded by the major part of translators with the grasshopper. It is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, and particularly of Italy or Greece; appearing in the hotter months of summer, and continuing its shrill chirping during the greatest part of the day; generally sitting among the leaves of trees. These insects proceed from eggs deposited by the parent in and about the roots of trees, near the ground. They hatch into larves, which, when grown to their full size, are the tettigometræ of the ancient writers; and after having continued in this state of larva near two years, cast their skins, and produce the complete insect.

The ancients differ in their opinions relative to the cicada. Virgil speaks of them as insects of a disagreeable and stridulous tone*. On the contrary, Anacreon compliments them on their musical note, and makes the cicada a favourite of Apollo.

"Happy insect! blithe and gay,

Seated on the sunny spray,

And drunk with dew, the leaves among,

Singing sweet thy chirping song.

Bucol. 2. &c.

All the various season's treasures,
All the products of the plains,
Thus lie open to thy pleasures,
Fav'rite of the rural swains.

On thee the Muses fix their choice,
And Phoebus adds his own.
Who first inspir'd thy lively voice
And tun'd the pleasing tone.

Thy cheerful note in wood and vale
Fills every heart with glee;

And summer smiles in double charms
While thus proclaim'd by thee.

Like gods canst thou the nectar sip,

A lively chirping elf;

From labour free, and free from care,

A little god thyself!"

There is also a very pleasing and elegant tale *, related by ancient authors, of two rival + musicians alternately playing for a prize; when one of the candidates was so unfortunate as to break a string of his lyre; by which accident he would certainly have failed; when a cicada, flying near, happened to settle on his lyre, and by its own note supplied the defective string, and thus enabled the favoured candidate to overcome his antagonist. So remarkable was the event, that a statue was erected to perpetuate the memory of it, in which a man is represented playing on a lyre, on which sits a cicada.

Notwithstanding these romantic attestations in favour of the cicada, it is certain that modern ears are offended rather than pleased with its voice, which is so very strong and stridulous that it fatigues by its incessant repetition; and a single cicada bung up in a cage has been found almost to drown the voice of a whole company.

It is to be observed that the male cicada alone exerts this power.

* See Antiq. mirab. narrat. lib. i. Strab. geogr. lib. 6.

+ Viz. Eunomus of Locris, and Aristo of Rhegium.

ful note; the females being entirely mute: hence the old witticism attributed to that incorrigible sensualist, Xenarchus the Rhodian.

"Happy the cicadas' lives,

Since they all have voiceless wives!"

That a sound so piercing should proceed from so small a body may well excite our astonishment; and the curious apparatus by which it is produced has justly claimed the attention of the most celebrated investigators. Reaumur and Roësel in particular have endeavoured to ascertain the nature of the mechanism by which the noise is produced; and have found that it proceeds from a pair of concave membranes, seated on each side the first joints of the abdomen: the large concavities of the abdomen, immediately under the two broad lamelia in the male insect, are also faced by a thin, pellucid, iridescent membrane serving to increase and reverberate the sound, and a strong muscular apparatus is exerted for the purpose of moving the necessary organs

The cicada orni has a near resemblance to the preceding spe. cies, and is by some naturalists regarded as a more variety. They were certainly contemplated as the same species by the Greek and Roman writers. During the hottest part of the day in summer, the males, sitting among the leaves of trees, make a shrill and continual chirping; and so strong and stridulous is their note, that a single insect hung up in a cage has been found almost to drown the voices of a large company.

[Shaw. Pantolog.

SECTION V.

Camel-Cricket, or Praying Mantis.

Mantis oratorica.-LINN.

THIS is one of the most singular genera in the whole class of insects; and imagination itself can hardly conceive shapes more strange than those exhibited by some particular species.

The chief European kind is the mantis oratoria of Linnæus, or camel-cricket, as it is often called. This insect, which is a stranger to the British isles, is found in most of the warmer parts of Europe, and is entirely of a beautiful green colour. It is nearly three inches

in length, of a slender shape, and in its general sitting posture is observed to hold up the two fore-legs, slightly bent, as if in an at. titude of prayer: for this reason the superstition of the vulgar has conferred upon it the reputation of a sacred animal, and a popular notion has often prevailed, that a child or traveller having lost his way, would be safely directed by observing the quarter to which the animal pointed when taken into the hand. In its real dispo. sition it is very far from sanctity; preying with great rapacity on any of the smaller insects which fall in its way, and for which it lies in wait with anxious assiduity in the posture at first mentioned, seizing them with a sudden spring when within its reach, and de vouring them. It is also of a very pugnaceous nature; and when kept with others of its own species in a state of captivity, will at. tack its neighbour with the utmost violence, till one or the other is destroyed in the contest. Roësel, who kept some of these insects, observes that in their mutual conflicts their maneuvres very much resemble those of hussars fighting with sabres; and sometimes one cleaves the other through at a single stroke, or severs the head from its body. During these engagements the wings are generally ex. panded, and when the battle is over, the conqueror devours his antagonist.

Among the Chinese this quarrelsome property in the genus mantis is turned into a similar entertaiment with that afforded by fighting cocks and quails: (for it is to this insect, or one closely allied to it, that I imagine the following passage in Mr. Barrow's account of China to allude.) "They have even extended their enquiries after fighting animals into the insect tribe, and have discovered a species of gryllus, or locust, that will attack each other with such ferocity as seldom to quit their hold, without bringing away at the same time a limb of their antagonist. These little creatures are fed and kept apart in bamboo cages, and the custom of making them devour each other is so common that, during the summer months, scarcely a boy is to be seen without his cage of grasshoppers."

[Shaw. Barrow.