SUBFAMILY VI. OECAXTII IN.TC. 711 



utes. During the process, no intromitteut organ of the male was 

 noticeable, nor Avas an t y union of the parts at the end of the abdo- 

 men seen. Is it possible that in the mating of these Oecanthids 

 the female removes the semen from the glands whose openings are 

 beneath the tegmina of the male and then fertilizes her ova? 



Since then the mating habits of the different species of Oecan- 

 tlniK have been carefully studied and described by Hancock (190."), 

 11)11) and Houghton (1909) and they are concisely stated by Ful- 

 ton (1915, 3) as follows: 



"The interest in these insects centers chiefly about their remarkable 

 reproductive structures and instincts and their peculiar opposition hab- 

 its. The song of the male, which serves to attract the female, is produced 

 by a minute rasp on the under side of the forewing which is scraped by a 

 structure on the inner edge of the opposite wing. In producing the sound 

 the wings are raised at right angles to the body and vibrated rapidly. 

 When the wings are so raised, there is exposed on the metanotum a glan- 

 dular hollow, the secretion of which is very attractive to the female. The 

 latter climbs over the abdomen and feeds on the secretion. The male takes 

 advantage of the position and inserts the barbed capillary tube of a sperma- 

 tophore into the genital opening of the female and the sperms pass into the 

 seminal receptacle. The spermatophore is formed in a peculiar pouch at 

 the tip of the abdomen of the male by the hardening of a viscous liquid 

 about a mass of sperms." 



"The female prepares for oviposition by chewing a small pit in the 

 bai'k of the plant. The drilling is accomplished by quick downward 

 thrusts of the ovipositor and a slower twisting motion. After the egg is 

 deposited a quantity of mucilaginous substance is discharged into the hole, 

 and with most species the female plugs up the opening with chewed bark 

 or excrement." 



"The songs of tree crickets form a considerable part of the insect 

 sounds to be heard in late summer and autumn. The males generally 

 place themselves in some hidden retreat among the leaves, with only their 

 long antennae projecting to warn them of approaching danger. They stop 

 singing at the slightest jar of the ground or movement of the plants in 

 which they are located, but at night a strong light can be thrown on them 

 without appreciably disturbing them. 



"In preparing to sing the male raises the fore wings or tegmina per- 

 pendicular to the body. This movement automatically unfolds them so 

 that the inner portion, which normally lies over the back, and the inflexed 

 outer portion, come to lie in the same plane when the wings are raised. 

 The sound is produced by the fore wings vibrating rapidly in a transverse 

 direction, so that the overlapping inner portions rub against each other. 



"The mechanism which produces the sound is found near the base of 

 the wing, the broad expanded distal part serving as a resonator to increase 

 the volume of sound. A short but prominent transverse vein, about one- 

 fourth way from the base, is modified beneath to form a minute filiform 

 rasp. It is from one to one and a half millimeters long according to spec- 

 ies, and bears from 20 to 50 short teeth which are inclined slightly toward 



