710 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLIDJE. THE CRICKETS. 



into the face; eyes large, ovate, lying obliquely behind the basal 

 joint of antennas ocelli absent; antenna? more than twice as long 

 as body, filiform, the two basal joints usually ornamented with 

 black markings; pronotum longer than broad, somewhat narrow- 

 ed in front; lower margins of lateral lobes'with front and hind 

 angles rounded; tegmiua of males rather firm, rigid, semi-trans- 

 parent, flat, much wider than the abdomen, their tips broadly 

 rounded; of females narrow, membranous, wrapped closely about 

 the body; wings usually longer than tegmina; legs very slender; 

 fore and middle tibiae unarmed, the former dilated near base and 

 furnished each side with a large elongate-oval t t ympauum ; all 

 the femora unarmed beneath, the hind ones very slender; hind 

 tibi?e usually armed above on each margin with a row of very 

 numerous minute teeth and three to six longer spines, also with 

 three pairs of subapical spurs; tarsi three-jointed, the basal joint 

 longer than the others united. Subgeuital plate of male scoop- 

 shaped, its apex rounded. Ovipositor straight, shorter than hind 

 femora, the tips of inner valves wedge-shaped, of outer ones armed 

 with four short, rather blunt curved teeth. 



All our species of ecu n thus are mainly arboreal, living on 

 trees, vines, shrubbery and the taller herbaceous plants. They 

 especially frequent the various species of golden-rod and wild sun- 

 flowers, and often three or four can be found on a single one of 

 these plants. For the most part they remain quiescent during the 

 day, but are quite active at night. 



The first mention in this country of the peculiar mating hab- 

 its of Oecanthus was made in my former work 1 1!)(K>, 452) as 

 follows: 



On September 18, 1898, I was in late afternoon in a wet prairie 

 near Hammond, Indiana, where 0. fasciatus was more than usual- 

 ly abundant on clumps of wild sunflower. A half dozen or more 

 pairs were seen in copulation. In this act it seems that the fe- 

 male mounts the body of the male, the latter first raising the 

 tegmina until they stand at an angle of about 45 degrees, so as 

 to give the female access to a pair of glands which lie immedi- 

 ately beneath the base of wings. The female worked at these 

 glands with her mandibles, the male meantime moving the inner 

 wings gently sideways, in and out. After working over the glands 

 for ten or fifteen minutes, the female would usually leave the 

 body of the male and crawl onto an adjacent head of the sunflower. 

 The male meantime kept the tegmina raised, seemingly in waiting 

 for her return, which was alwavs at the end of five or six min- 



