MOLE CRICKET. Any one of the crickets of the genus Gryllotalpa and its close allies, forming a tribe Oryllotalpides, remarkable for the dilated front legs. which superficially re semble those of the mole, and which are admir ably adapted to an underground life. The entire existence of the insect is subterranean. It travels in burrows of its own digging, and lays its eggs and rears its young in the same excavation. The adaptation of the front legs to the economy of the insect is very striking, as the tibia and tarsi are so arranged as to act as shears with which rootlets are severed. Mole crickets are furnished with a curious auditory apparatus on the front leg below the knee, concealed in a deep fold of the surface. The male makes a sound which has been reduced to a scale by Scudder. and which differs from the songs of the other crickets. Sharp calls it a jarring note somewhat like that of the goat-sucker." The mole cricket is
principally carnivorous in its diet, although it feeds also to some extent. upon vegetation. and the principal damage it does is ill cutting roots which come in the way of its burrows. It is considered the most destructive insect to agri culture ill Porto Rico, where it is called `changa.' The female lays from 2110 to 400 eggs, and the young are at first gregarious, the mother watch ing over them and supplying them with food until their first molt; after this they disperse and begin to make burrows for themselves. These young are often devoured by the adult males. Consult: Sharp. "insects,' in Cambridge Natural History, vol. v. (London. 1895) ; Barrett, The Cbauga, or the Mole (Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1893). Sec illustra tion Under CRICKET.