CRICKET, a family (Gryllidae, order Orthoptera) of jump ing insects allied to the long-horned grasshoppers. The wings when folded form long slender filaments, which often reach beyond the extremity of the body, and give the appearance of a bifid tail, while in the male they are provided with a stridulating apparatus by which the well-known chirping sound is produced. The ab domen of the female ends in a long slender ovipositor, which, however, is not exserted in the mole cricket. The house cricket (Gryllus domesticus) is greyish-yellow marked with brown. It frequents houses, especially in rural districts, where its lively, if monotonous, chirp may be heard nightly in the neighbourhood of the fireplace. It is particularly fond of warmth, and is thus fre quently found in bakeries, where its burrows are often sunk to within a few inches of the oven. The field cricket (Gryllus cam pcstris) is larger and darker. It burrows in the ground to a depth of from 6 to 12 in., and in the evening the male sits at the mouth of its hole noisily stridulating until a female approaches, "when," says Bates, "the louder notes are succeeded by a more subdued tone, whilst the successful musician caresses with his antennae the mate he has won." The musical apparatus in this species con sists of upwards of 13o transverse ridges on the under side of one of the nervures of the wing cover, which are rapidly scraped over a smooth, projecting nervure on the opposite wing. The female deposits her eggs—about 200 in number—on the ground and when hatched the nymphs, which resemble the perfect insect except in the absence of wings, form burrows for themselves in which they pass the winter. The mole cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris) owes its name to the striking analogy in its habits and structure to those of the common mole. Its body is thick and cylindrical in shape, and it burrows by means of its front legs, which are short and greatly flattened out and thickened, with the outer edge partly notched so as somewhat to resemble a hand. It prefers loose and sandy ground in which to dig its burrow con sisting of a vertical shaft from which long horizontal galleries are given off ; and in making those excavations it does injury to gardens and vineyards by destroying the tender roots of plants, which form its principal food. It also feeds upon other insects, and even upon the weak of its own species in the absence of other food. The female deposits her eggs in a neat subterranean cham ber, about the size of a hen's egg, and sufficiently near the surface to allow of the eggs being hatched by the heat of the sun. The mole cricket is rare in Britain but common in many other coun tries. In Italy and N. Africa crickets are kept in cages for the sake of their notes. In China they are kept for the sport of cricket-fighting. (See ORTHOPTERA.)