Evening star., 1944-11-18
This and That
By Charles Z. Trace,peN.
ALEXANDRIA. VA

ALEXANDRIA, VA.
Dear Sir:
Seated for lunch at table with two
strangers washington style), was sur
pr1sed to hear the man on nv left saw
that what he needed was a Gryllus
domesticus. live male cricket.
1t is the male that sings, he ex-
planned to his companion. He said he
had just polished up Japanese cricket
cage, beautiful thing of exquisite
workmanship and intricate design
The cage was gift, he said. A
dealer had received 600 of them. A few
days later Pearl Harbor discouraged the
dealers hopes of popularizing the keep
ing of crickets as pets.
Can any one help get this gentleman
a cricket? I live in Parkfairfax. and
the place swarms with them. But now
that it is colder they hide under the
radiator, and I can't catch them.
Sincerely yours G. K"
-
With or without Pearl Harbor. we do
not believe that the Jap habit Of keep
Ing cricketS in cages would ever become
popular in this country.
II requires too much patience, and
then most persons do not like crickets
and their singing, or f1ddling.
II one admires the domestic cricket,
the insect will do very well on its own
around the hearth, In the coal pile or
even under the radiator, as our corre-
spondent points out.
They belong to the order of insects
which contain the grasshoppers, cock
reaches, walking-sticks and nantes.
Here we have some of our most famil-
lar and interesting insects, some of them
known to small boys, others to farmers
and still others to householders
The praying mantis plural, mantes)
Is strange one, and the cockroach
grows almost S inches long in Cuba!
There are some facts to null over.
Not all cricketS come into houses.
The commonest one in the Northeastern
United States is Gryllus neglectus,
which occasionally enters, but the real
house cricket Is the European species
mentioned by our correspondent, Gryl-
lus domesticus. It is found widely in
Canada and the New England States
and has been distributed widely from
them to all parts of the country.
The singing is done by the male
alone. He manages 1t by rubbing q file
like ridge Of one wing over a scraping
surface Of the other.
Scientists are in agreement that the
sounds serve either as a call to the fe-
male or as love song, or both.
The rapidity of the chirps is affected
by heat and cold, and inauisitiye per
sons claim that they have worked out a
mathematical formula for telling the
hvy oh 4.
thermometer.
T stands for temperature In this for
mula and Is arrived at by taking the
number OF chirps per minute, subtract
ing 40 and dividing the result by 4.
then adding so to this.
N, in the formula, stands for the
number Of chirps per minute. The
formula reads, T equals so plus N (the
number Of chirps per minute) minus
49, divided by 4.
This formula is said to work out to
within degrees for both house crickets
and the common field cricket.
Crtckets are fun, although it must be
admitted that too many Of them in
doors do get on the nerves Of sensitive
people.
Keeping them in cages, according to
the Japanese custom, might be an Inn
provement. They are fed on leaves Of
various kinds and other vegetable mat
ter.
1t Is too bad that the energies OF those
strange and barbaric people could not
have continued to be given to goldfish
and chyrsanthemum culture and to
painting and keeping crickets In cages.
For their own sake, as well as for the
worlds, they made q poor exchange
when they took to bombs and bullets.