478 FAMILY VII. TETTIGOXIIDJE. THE KATYDIDS. 



The oblong-winged katydid is a frequent insect throughout 

 Indiana, becoming mature in the southern part about July 20, 



and in the northern coun- 

 ties probably a fortnight 

 later. It occurs for the most 

 part on shrubbery and flow- 

 ers of golden-rod and other 

 Composite along fence rows 

 and edges of thickets and 

 woods, especially in damp 

 localities ; and when flushed 



Fig. 158. Female. Natural size. (After Lugger.) flieg ^^ ft klnd of whirping 



noise, alighting on fence or the lower branch of tree. I have often 

 located the male by its note, which to me is a creaking squawk- 

 like the noise made by drawing a fine-toothed comb over a taut 

 string. It is usually but once repeated, though sometimes three 

 times. On several occasions it has been made after the insect was 

 in my fingers. 



A number of pink specimens have been taken from low mea- 

 dows near Bass Lake, Starke County. The causes which produce 

 this curious "sport," by which a grass-green is changed to a deli- 

 cate pink, are, as yet, unknown. Scudder has said that "one 

 thinks at once of autumn leaves and their change from green to 

 red and notices that these pink katydids all occur in the autumn." 

 In Indiana the pink specimens have been taken in early August, 

 long before frost and before any noticeable change in the sur- 

 rounding vegetation. 



Several of the species of AmWycort/pJia are known to occur 

 occasionally in the pink form, which appear much more frequent 

 in this genus than in any other of the Tettigoniida?. Wheeler 

 (1907), Knab (1907), Hancock (191G) and other authors have 

 published interesting papers on the subject of pink katydids. 

 Hancock succeeded in rearing a family of a cross between a pink 

 female and a green male of obloiif/ifolia. He found that the eggs 

 of this species are laid in the ground and require two to three 

 years to hatch. Of the 13 young, nine were pink and four green, 

 the color remaining practically the same throughout their lives. 

 He concludes, as did Wheeler, that the pink color, as well as 

 the green, is hereditary, the piukness therefore being congenital 

 or germinal in character and not the result of conditions of en- 

 vironment. 



The known range of typical oUongifolia is from New T England 

 and Montreal west to southwestern Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota 



