The crickets (Fig. 198) are familiar forms with cylindrical bodies and large heads placed vertically, the ovipositor often being as large as the entire body. The female often deposits three hundred eggs in the ground. The note of the cricket is produced by the male, and is a decidedly musical chirp, varying in the different kinds. The close observer may easily find the cave house of the little singer that is often seen sitting at the entrance, singing, not at the top of its voice, but with the full force of its wings, the sound being produced by using the fore wings, as bows and the hind wings as fiddles, and sawing with great rapidity. The crickets are found in the greatest variety. Some live in the ground, others affect houses, and in the tropics beautiful tree crickets are found. The snowy tree cricket has a peculiar note, _te-reat, te-reat, te-reat_. The broad-winged tree cricket has a call which resembles a dog whistle. Another has a piping note resembling the thrilling musical sound made by rubbing the edge of a glass with one's finger. The singular cave cricket is wingless, and has antennæ several times the length of its body. The Western cricket does great damage to the crops of the farmer, and when bands are seen marching over the country, ditches are often dug into which the crickets plunge, where, in default of food, they begin to devour one another. The cry of this cricket is harsh and disagreeable, the "musical instrument" being on the dorsum or back of the shield which seems to cover the fore part of its back. The curious mole cricket, which burrows underground and is provided with enormous jaws, is a menace to the gardener. In the outer Florida Keys I found that it was almost impossible to rear plants, so plentiful and ravenous were these fierce root eaters. XXIV. THE BEETLES The beetles (Fig. 199) are insects having their fore wings thickened to constitute sheaths or covers for the lower pair, used in flight. Their mouths are adapted for biting, and they pass through a complete metamorphosis. There are about ninety thousand species, ranging from minute creatures to huge, lumbering goliaths. When walking the beetle presents a trim appearance, enveloped in a gleaming armor of the highest polish, and often ablaze with metallic tints, but when it flies the elytra, or wing covers, are thrown up, and a pair of soft, silken wings flutter out, stiffen, and bear the beetle away. [Illustration: FIG. 199.--A typical beetle (_Cotalpa_): _A_, imago; _B_, larva.] [Illustration: FIG. 200.--Head of a beetle.]