Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 151 



syllables, and Scudder, an experienced student of the Orthoptera, says that 



the note, which sounds like xr, has a shocking lack of melody, adding that 



the poets who have sung its praises must have heard 



it at the distance that lends enchantment. The sounds 



are made by the males exclusively, and result from 



the rubbing together of the bases of the wing-covers, 



which have the veins and membrane specially modified 



for this purpose (see Fig. 201). Concavus lays, in the 



autumn, flattened dark slate-colored eggs, about inch 



long and one-third as wide, in two rows along a twig, 



the eggs overlapping a little. These eggs hatch in the 



following spring, and the young, like the adults, feed G ; 



. J lus concavus sp. 



on the foliage of the tree. 



The oblong leaf-winged and round-winged katydids belong to the genus 

 Amblycorypha, and they can be readily recognized by the broad, oblong, 

 and rounded wing-covers, and the strongly curved ovipositor of the female, 

 with serrated tip. They are grass-green and have the wings longer than 

 the wing-covers. The oblong leaf- winged species, A. oblongifolia (Fig. 202), 



is 2 inches long to tips of folded 

 wings, while the round -winged 

 species, A. rotundijolia, is ij in- 

 ches or less in length. These 

 katydids prefer bushes and tall 

 weeds or even grass-clumps to 

 tree-tops. Oblongifolia is said by 

 McNeill to make a "quick shuf- 

 fling sound which resembles 

 ' katy ' or ' katydid ' very slight- 

 ly," while the song of rotun- 

 dijolia is said by Scudder to be 

 made both day and night without variation and to consist of two to four 

 notes, sounding like chic-a-chee, run together and repeated generally once 

 in about five seconds for an indefinite length of time. 



FIG. 202. The oblong leaf -winged katydid, 

 Amblycorypha oblongifolia, female. (After 

 Lugger; natural size.) 



FIG. 203. Angular-winged katydid, Microcentrum laurifolium, male. 

 (After Riley; natural size.) 



The angular-winged katydids, genus Microcentrum, are large, numerous, 



