SUBFAMILY VI. OECAXTHIX.E. 715 



Fulton (loc. cit.) says that 0. nirciis "is a tree- and bush 

 inhabiting form. It is found most abundantly in apple orchards 

 and is more or less common in plantings of other fruit trees 

 and in raspberry plantations, shrubberies, vines and bushy fence 

 rows. Among forest trees it is less common, although a few can 

 often be heard singing in such places, especially along the edge 

 of a wood. In general this species prefers a cultivated region to 

 a wilderness. However, in orchards that are regularly sprayed 

 with arsenicals, the crickets do not become very abundant." 



Morse (1919a) states that niveus is common throughout south 

 ern New England in shrubbery near houses, orchards and gardens 

 from late August till October. Walker (1904, 253) says that 

 nircus is very common in the cultivated parts of Ontario and 

 that of native trees he had found it most partial to butternut, 

 where the females are found on the trunk and lower branches, but 

 the males higher up and more difficult to obtain. He adds: 

 "0. nii'cns is generally held responsible for a great deal of mis- 

 chief done to raspberry and blackberry canes by the females in 

 laying their eggs. It is my belief that most of this damage, at 

 least in this locality, is done by 0. fasciatiis and <]n<i<lri)>ini<-t<ttits 

 which abound on raspberry bushes, while niveus is seldom if ever 

 found on them." This belief, as will be noted below, has been 

 since proven to be correct. 



The first definite account of the song and habits of nir<'iix is 

 that of Fitch (1856, 406) in part as follows: 



"In the southern part of New York the song of the snowy tree cricket 

 begins to be heard as early as the first of August. Perched among the 

 thick foliage of a grapevine or other shrubbery, some feet up from the 

 ground, and remaining in the same spot day after day, its song begins 

 soon after sunset and before the duskiness of twilight arrives. It is dis- 

 tinctly heard at a distance of several rods, and the songster is always far- 

 ther off than is supposed. Though dozens of other crickets and katydids 

 are shrilling on every side at the same time, the peculiar note of this 

 cricket is at once distinguished from all the rest, consisting of repetitions 

 of a single syllable, slowly uttered, in a monotonous, melancholy tone, with 

 a slight pause between. The children regard the cricket as no votary of 

 the temperance cause; they understand its song to consist of the words 

 treat treat treat treat, which words, slowly uttered, do so closely re- 

 semble its notes that they will at once recall them to the recollection of 

 almost every reader. And the song is thus continued without the slightest 

 variation and without any cessation, I think, the whole night through. I, 

 however, have sometimes heard it at the first commencement of its even- 

 ing serenade uttering three syllables resembling the words treat, treat. 

 tirn; treat, treat, two as though the songster was supplicating a libation 

 for his voiceless mate as well as himself, a longer pause following each 



