Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-14


present week. They come in the night and Settle
down upon the sidewalks, where they remain 70
the next day. or until swept of and destroyed
by the people. verify believe that on Monday
and Tuesday mornings OF this week five bushels
OF crickets might have peen collected in front of
the Pickwick hoGel and in the neighborhood of
Andrews pavilion on Thirteenth street Now
where do sill these crickets come from? Some
say that since they appear only in I rainy time
they are visitation from the mountains OF the
far West like the Colorado gsasshopUers. How
lit! Have we cause for experimenting trouble
of any kind from them? CITIZEN.
Fort Worth. Tex, Sept. 10.
There is nothing specially remarkable
about the criekets themselves, though
there is something of phenomena
easily explained, however, in their sud
den and unex pected appearance on so
large scale. The insect is the common
field cricket known TO science as Acheta
campestriS. We say common, and yet
We find in our cricket n slight variation
from the regular species just named,
though not more so than we find in all
Texas things. It is larger and of a
rather lighter color, still all eutomolo-
gists would be apt TO class it as Acheta
campestris.
Tbs cricHets attracting so much site Il
ton just now did not IRAN down, -
neither did they come from the mount
aims Of the far West. They are vertable
citizens of the regions round about the
points at which they have lately been
plcnicing on so grand q scale, aud it is
not at all probable that there Is more
of them with US this year than there has
been, for the same localities, in every
year during the past century.
The field cricket is ruralist; that is,
unlike his cousin (Acheta domestica),
who iuhabits the hearth and gets
into poetry, ne does not live about
human habitations. The open field
clothed in thick growth of vegetation is
his abiding place, where he burrows into
the ground TO the depth of from six or
twelve inches, thus making himself L
home. In the early evening twilight the
gentleman of the house may be seen
sitting at the door of his domicil singing
a most monotonous kind of song (the
lady of the house don't siug) and ap-
parently wishing he could go somewhere
to the club or the variety theater, per-
he ps-Dut he can t unless certain natural
conditions happen 10 favor him. He has
a fine pair of wings capable OF carrying
him miles at a stretch, but if the weather
chances to be dry they are things more
OF show than utility In q word, the
field cricket cannot fly save in damp
time. In times of drouth his wings are
rigid aud unmauageable, so he has to
stay at home, but so soon as there comes
rainy spell, dampenlng the atm osphere,
his wings "come into case as the
tobacco workers say, enabling him to
unfold them aud go whittier he visits.
But in justice to the field cricket it may
be stated that he Is not much of a run
about. He stays pretty close at home
save in one particular short season of the
year, no matter how favorable for his
flight may be the atmospheric conditions.
But when that short season is indicated
upon his almanac he invariably goes,
unless there is something very serious the
matter to prevent the wings from work.
ing.
Like many other insects the field |
cricket quits its home at regular season
and flies abroad to pair, and to deposit
its eggs for the next brood. The pairing
season in Northern Texas exte nds from
about the middle of August to about the
middle of September. IL the weather
chances TO be favorable (not extremely
drY) the flight goes on gradually through
the season named, an installment each
night, till the season Is over, but should |
this be otherwise, all are held back to |
wait for moisture, and, as conse |
quencs, the first rain, especially If it |
happens to come towards the last of their |
flying period, brings the whole business |
of them out on a lark at the same time. |
This condition of affairs fully prevailed |
in the present season.
The field cricket is among the roctur- |
nal insects attracted by a bright light, |
air and see our electric lamps they,
though possibly miles away, make |
"bee' line for them. Contact with the |
lamps MAIN large numbers OF them and |
thew fall in the streets unable to rise |
again and this is how we happen to have |
a shower of ,crickets. The lamps most ex- |
posed to view get the largest number of |
them which explains why more fell at |
Andrews pavilion and the Pickwlok no. |
tel than at other places. The hotel |
lamp, unlike other lamps in that neigh |
borhood, is out in the open street with no |
covering above it, and the pavilion lamp |
hangs far above all surroundings, and |
can be seen 8 greater distance than any |
other lamp il the city.
Had the crlckets came out gradually |
for month, as they would have done |
had the weather been in their favor as
many would have fallen about our cleo
trio lamps perhaps as have just been in
teresting our people, but they would |
have been distributed along, only a
comparative few each night. and |
therefore would not have attracted any |
particular attention.
There is no trouble 20 be apprehended. |
We have about the same number of field |
oricksts with'us all the time. Our cleo
trio lights may be reducing their num-
bers somewhat; and, by the way, does it |
not offer q hint worthy of consideration |
at the hands of the cotton planter? |
Might not exposed electric lights IN the |
cotton field DO much IN the way OF de- |
stroying the moths that produce the boil |
worm and the cotton worm? Lights in |
the cotton field are no new thing, but |
ordinary lights are not bright enough to |
do any particular good. The streets of |
Fort Worth are, as yet, lighted by gas;
no one has seen field cricket monkeying |
about any of the street gas lamps.
Alfalfa Seed Wanted.
I noticed in Sundays GAZETTE communion