GRYLLOTALPA, the MOLE-CRICKET; an insect very destructive to gardens. Like the cricket, it makes a noise in the evening; and like the mole, is perpetually employed in digging below ground. It is an insect of a very unpleasant form. It is of the length and thickness of a man's little finger; and is of a brown colour, which is darker in the male than in the female. There are on each side of the anus two hairy processes, resembling the tails of mice; its belly is composed of eight joints, and is covered with as many scales, which are of a pale flesh-colour, and are covered with short hair. The back is covered by a pair of pointed wings, along each of which there runs a black streak or line. These wings fold any way at the creature's pleasure, and when fully expanded are very large. Over these lie the antennæ; which are variegated also with black, and reach about half the length of the wings. It has only four legs: the hinder pair are long and fit for hopping; the anterior pair are short, and furnished with a sort of hands for digging in the manner of the mole. The breast is covered with a crustaceous substance, which is blackish and hairy on the outside, and smooth and pale within. The eyes are very bright and black, and are very hard; and the mouth is wide, and has two tonsils, and teeth in both jaws. This creature lives under ground, and is principally found in damp and boggy places. They come out in the dusk of the evening, and make a very loud noise of the nature of that of the cricket.
The mole-cricket moves very slowly: and Goedartius is of opinion, that its wings were given it rather as an ornament, than as a thing of use; or if they have any real use, that it is the covering and defending the tender body of the creature, which is very soft, and easily liable to accidents; and Mouffett says, that its flights are no more than long leaps. But we have a very different account of the use this creature makes of its wings, in the German Ephemrides. Mentzelius, in a paper there, declares this to be one of the most mischievous insects of the creation. He says it is a kind of amphibious creature; and that it lives equally well under ground, in the air, or under water: that while it is under ground, it does infinite mischief, by burrowing under the beds of a garden, and eating the roots of flowers; and that in the night
Gryllotalpa it comes out, and taking wing, settles upon the fruit-trees, where it does no little mischief: and all this the author affirms from his own experience, in the gardens which he observed.
This creature is very nice in the construction of its nest. This is always under ground, and it chooses a solid clay for the purpose. All its precautions seem to be necessary to secure its eggs from becoming a prey to a kind of black fly, which conceals itself under ground. The noise of this animal is variously accounted for by naturalists; but it is most probably effected by the play of organs in their belly, of a singular construction. This is certain, that if the head of the animal be taken off, or if it be severed in the middle, it continues to live, and even to chirp, for some considerable time.
It is remarkable of this creature, that it can move backward as fast as forward, and often does so when frightened.