We analyze he femtosecond instability of the chamond lattice of silicon and GaAs, which is induced by a dense electron-hole plasma after excitation by a very imense laser pulse. We obtain that the electron-hole plasma causes an instability of both transverse acoustic and longitudinal optical phonons. So, within less than 200fs, the atoms are displaced more than 1 A from their equilibrium position. The gap between the conduction and the valence band then vanishes and the symmetries of the diamond structure are destroyed, which has important effects on the optical reflectivity and second-harmonic generation. After that, the crystal melts very rapidly because of the high kinetic energy of the atoms. Note that mis is in good agreement with recent experiments done on Shand GaAs using a pump laser to excite a dense electron hole plasma and a probe laser to observe the resulting changes in the atomic and electronic structure.