Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 4).

Date:
1830-33
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 4). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    24/632
    ao CRICKET. and, from the moment of escaping from the egg, the young are sufficiently vigorous to seek tlieir o^vTl food, which consists of organized substances. Wliile yet very soft, tiiey are perfectly formed, with the ex- ception of the ruthments of the elytra and wings. These, in some species, are never developed. As the insect grows, the skin becomes too small, and requires to be changed as often as seven or eight times, before the insect attains its full size. The crickets are distinguished from the other rnembei-s of diis family by their long, silken antennfr, by having but three joints to their tarsi, and by the comitarative Smallness of their thighs. Their bodies are short, thick-set and soft, with the head, corselet and abdomen immediately applied, and of equal length and breadth. The liead is thick, rounded above, and nearly vertical, lietween the eyes, which are widely separated and reticulated on the surface, there are two brilliiuU stcmmnia. The corselet is quadrangular, somewhat larger trausversely, and rounded at the edges. The elytra, which do not com- pletely cover the belly, are curved squ<ire- ly, and are not roof-shaped, as in the locust and grasshojiper. In the winged species, the wings exceed the eli/tra, and even abdomen, beyond which they pro- ject, in the Ibrm of a sort of bifid tail. In addition to the two flexible abdominal appendages common to both sexes, the females have a long borer or oviduct, which is a stiff, square tube, formed of two pieces, se[)arable, and free at the i)oint, sometimes seeming to l)e split, and termi- nating by a slight enlargement.—The noise, for which all crickets are remarka- ble, and usually called chirping, is prp- duced by the friction of the bases of their dytra, or wing-cases, against each other, these parts being curiously adapted to produce this sound. Both sexes have the elytra longitudinal, divided into two por- tions, one of which is vertical or lateral, covering the sides, and the other dorsal, covering the back. These portions, in the female, have their nervures alike, run- ning obli<iuely in two directions, fonning, by their intersection, numerous small meshes, which are of a rhomboidal or lozenge shape. The elytra of the females have an elevation at the base. The ver- tical portion in the males does not materi- ally differ from tliat of the females, but, in the horizontal part, the base of each dy- tnirn is so elevated as to form a cavity beneath. The nervures are stronger, and very m-egidar in their course, with various inflexions, curved, spiral, &c., producing a variety of different sized and shaped meshes, generally larger than in the fe- male : towards the extremity of the wmg, l)articularly, there is a neariy circular space, surrounded by one nenure, and divided into two meshes by another. The friction of the nervures of the convex surface of the base of the left or under- most clytrum against those of the concave suriace of the base of the right one, causes vii)rations of the membranous areas of an intensity projiortioned to the rapidity of the friction. In fact, the insect mav be regarded as performing on a sort of violin, the base of one elytrum serving for a bow, and the cords of the other as the strings of the instrument. The reader, who may wish to enter upon a veiy mi- nute study of this and similar insects' con- trivances for producing sounds, may advan- tageously consult De Geer (vol. iii, p. 512), and Kirby and Spence (24th letter, vol. 2, p. 375 et seq.) The chiri)ing of the do- mestic cricket (acheta domestica) is by many regarded as j)lcasant or musical, and their presence in holes is regarded as a good omen by some people. Where they are numerous, certainly, to our ears, their noise is any thing but agreeable; and it requires considerable habituation to it to be able to sleep undisturbed by it. They arc vei-y hannlcss, taking up their abotle near chiumeys, fire-])laces, and other warm situations, whence they come out, when the inmates of the house have retired to rest, and commence their monotonous song. If a light be brought, they sjjcedily retreat, leaping lightly to their holes, the length and peculiar structure of their long thighs especially fitting them for this mode of progression. One action which we have obsen'ed them perfonn with the antennfB shows the delicacy and perfec- tion of the muscles. They move the long silken appendages, as if cleaning or polish- ing diem, somewhat as we see birds do with their feathere. The field crickets {A. campestris) are as loud and noisy in the day as those auove-mentioned are at night, and largely contribute to the music of the fields, so delightful to the ear of the stu- dent of nature. Both species have attract- ed the attention of poets, who have cele- brated their simple but lively notes in verse of various degrees of excellence. Both species are equally innoxious, sub- sisting on small particles of organized matter, which might otherwise become troublesome from accumulation ; while, from their numbers, birds and otiier ani- mals of higher rank in the scale of being obtain a part of tlieir supply of food.