The insect, called, from its similarity of habits to the mole, the mole-cricket (_Gryllotalpa vulgaris_, Latr.), is but too well known in gardens, corn-fields, and the moist banks of rivers and ponds, in some parts of England, such as Wiltshire and Hampshire, though it is comparatively rare or unknown in others. It burrows in the ground, and forms extensive galleries similar to those of the mole, though smaller; and these may always be recognized by a slightly elevated ridge of mould: for the insect does not throw up the earth in hillocks like the mole, but gradually, as it digs along, in the manner of the field-mouse. In this way it commits great ravages, in hotbeds and in gardens, upon peas, young cabbages, and other vegetables, the roots of which it is said to devour. It is not improbable, we think, that, like its congener, the house-cricket, it may also prey upon underground insects, and undermine the plants to get at them, as the mole has been proved to do. Mr Gould, indeed, fed a mole-cricket for several months upon ants. The structure of the mole-cricket's arms and hands (if we may call them so) is admirably adapted for these operations, being both very strong, and moved by a peculiar apparatus of muscles. The breast is formed of a thick, hard, horny substance, which is further strengthened within by a double framework of strong gristle, in front of the extremities of which the shoulder-blades of the arms are firmly jointed: a structure evidently intended to prevent the breast from being injured by the powerful action of the muscles of the arms in digging. The arms themselves are strong and broad, and the hand is furnished with four large sharp claws, pointed somewhat obliquely outwards, this being the direction in which it digs, throwing the earth on each side of its course. So strongly indeed does it throw out its arms, that we find it can thus easily support its own weight when held between the finger and thumb, as we have tried upon half-a-dozen of the living insects now in our possession. [Illustration: Nest of the Mole-Cricket.]