Insect Study 



377 



THE SNOWY TREE-CRICKET 



Teacher's Story 



HIS is a slim, ghost-like cricket. It is pale green, 

 almost white in color, and about three-fourths of an 

 inch long. Its long, slender hind legs show that it is 

 a good jumper. Its long antennae, living threads, 

 pale gray in color, join the head with amber globe-like 

 segments. The pale eyes have a darker center and 

 the palpi are very long. The male has the wing- 

 covers shaped and veined like those of the black 

 cricket, but they are not so broad and are whitish and 

 very delicate. The wings beneath are wide, for these 

 crickets can fly. The female has a long, sword-like ovipositor. 



The snowy tree-cricket, like its relatives, spends much time at its 

 toilet. It whips the front foot over an antenna and brings the base of the 

 latter to the mandibles with the palpi and then cleans it carefully to the 

 very tip. It washes its face with the front foot, always with a downward 

 movement. If the hind foot becomes entangled in anything it first tries 

 to kick it clean, and then drawing it beneath the body, bends the head so 

 as to reach it with the mandibles and nibbles it clean. The middle foot 

 it also thrusts beneath the body, bringing it forward 

 between the front legs for cleaning. But when 

 cleaning its front feet, the snowy tree-cricket puts on 

 airs; it lifts the elbow high and draws the foot 

 through the mouth with a gesture very like that of a 

 young lady with a seal ring on her little finger, hold- 

 ing the ornate member out from its companions as if 

 it were stiff with a consciousness of its own import- 

 ance. 



There are two common species of the snowy tree- 

 crickets which can hardly be separated except by 

 specialists or by watching their habits. One is 

 called "the whistler" and lives on low shrubs or 

 grass; it gives a clear, soft, prolonged, unbroken 

 note. The other is called "the fiddler" and lives on 

 shrubs and in trees and vines. Its note is a pianis- 

 simo performance of the katydid's song; it is delight- 

 ful, rhythmic and sleep-inspiring; it begins in the late 

 afternoon and continues all night until the early, 

 cold hours of the approaching dawn. The vivacity 

 of the music depends upon the temperature, as the 

 notes are given much more rapidly during the hot 

 nights. 



"So far as we know, this snowy tree-cricket is the 

 only one of the insect musicians that seems conscious 

 of the fact that he belongs to an orchestra. If you r ^ et ( 

 listen on a September evening, you will hear the first berry cane. 



player begin; soon another will join, but not in After c. v. Riiey. 

 harmony at first. For some time there may be a 

 see-saw of accented and unaccented notes; but after a while the two will 

 be in unison ; perhaps not, however, until many more players have joined 



