“Does the mole-cricket say cree-cree like the ordinary cricket?”
“No; its song has a monotonous sound, being a sort of sharp buzzing, rather subdued, and continuous.”
Red-legged Grasshopper (female)
[[387]]
“And why does the mole-cricket sing? What an ugly creature with its little crafty eyes, short wings, big stomach, and frightful fore feet!”
“It sings to cheer its solitude and call its mate. You think it ugly; I find it admirably equipped for the work it has to do. It lives in the ground, just as moles do, and like them it is provided with a special tool for digging in the earth and cutting the roots that bar its way. Have you ever noticed a mole’s fore feet? They are broadly shovel-shaped and furnished with strong claws. The mole-cricket’s fore feet are very much like them, being short and wide and edged with saw-teeth. With this pair of powerful tools the insect digs its subterranean tunnels.”
“Then that,” said Jules, “must be the reason for calling it a mole-cricket: it has the mole’s wide feet for digging.”
“I should like to know,” Emile interposed, “what the mole and mole-cricket do under the ground.”
“They hunt for worms and all kinds of insects for food. In their subterranean operations both cut with their fore feet the roots that obstruct their progress, but the mole, exclusively carnivorous, does not eat them, whereas the mole-cricket, living on both animal and vegetable matter, nibbles them at its pleasure. Nor does it disdain a tender lettuce leaf when at night it comes up above ground to get a little air and cultivate the acquaintance of its neighbors. Hence the mole-cricket does a great deal of damage in gardens by laying bare the roots [[388]]of young plants when it is boring its tunnels, or by severing these roots with the saw-like edges of its feet, or by nibbling them when hungry.