Female Cricket
Now look at this cricket Mabel has caught. It is a female, and its wings, you see, are not ornamented like those of the male.
Do you know the meaning of his heavily ribbed wing covers?
Why, his wing covers are his musical instruments. See one of them magnified.
It is divided into spaces like so many little drum-heads. The ridge that runs across the top of the wing is something like a file in structure.
When little Mr. Cricket is in the mood for chirping, he raises his wing covers and rubs them together.
This throws the stiff membranes of which the wing covers are made into vibration, and the result is the cheery call of our little black fairy.
Little Nell says the cricket is more like a brownie than a fairy, and maybe she is right.
You can easily see the crickets rub their wings together if you watch in the fall of the year.