SUBFAMILY II. - OEDIPODIN.E. 



Piers (1!18, -!84) has written entertainingly of the habits of 

 ('. rcn-iiriilntnx as follows: 



"When in flight it produces a loud, sharp snapping or cracking sound. 

 klip. l-lip, klip, repeated usually about five or six times, which is familiar 

 to every one on a hot summer day. From this sound it is usually called 

 'Cracker 1 or sometimes 'Snapper' by boys and others, it thus being the 

 only species of locust which has been favored with a distinctive common- 

 name in Nova Scotia. It also somtimes flies with a rustling or fluttering 

 sound. When on the ground it is difficult to detect, as its color harmon- 

 izes well with that of its surroundings, but on the wing it at once proclaims 

 itself by its note and the distribution of the yellow on its brightly colored 

 wings. Its flight is often in a zig-zag course. It does not always wait to 

 be flushed, but is in the habit of taking short flights over its location, 

 cracking as it goes, in pure exuberance of spirits." 



"I must say I have not much fondness for such a dusty, dirty-looking 

 frequenter of hot, dry highways and other parched and stony places in the 

 full glare of the sun. He delights in such dusty and arid spots, as well as 

 the oily-smelling ballast of breezeless railway cuttings; and the hotter and 

 more sweltering the day, the better he is pleased, the more active he be- 

 comes, and the quicker, louder, sharper and more gleefully he cracks his 

 wings, like a man snapping his fingers derisively at the world which dis- 

 agrees with him. Only when he rises from earth, do we catch a glimpse of 

 the hidden gold in his sombre make-up." 



Somes (1014, (52) says of the species in Minnesota: 



"It is primarily an insect of dry or even dusty places and is somewhat 

 saxicolous, loving rocky exposures. On the granite hills about Lake Ver- 

 million it occurs in countless numbers and on a bright day the stridulation 

 of the males in flight fills the air. The flight of this species is the strong- 

 est and longest of all our Oedipods, possibly excepting Trimerotropis, and is 

 very indirect in its course, often completely circling about the observer and 

 ending near the point from which it started. The aerial stridulation of the 

 males is a sharp crackling, very like that of the Arphias but much loudev 

 and more continuous. We once noted an interesting performance by three 

 males. Out in the center of a railway switch yard, these three were grouped 

 closely together, and so intent were they that we were able to approach 

 within a few feet without alarming them. First one would raise both hind 

 femora high up and with a quick jerky movement rub them vigorously 

 against the sides of the tegmina; after a time he would pause and stand 

 at attention while one of his mates took up the performance. To our ear 

 no 'music' was audible save a faint grating noise, far from melodious. 

 This peformance was repeated time after time and we do not know how 

 long it might have been continued had they not been interrupted by a 

 heavily loaded ore train. As to the object of such demonstration, we havo 

 no explanation to offer since there were no females within a rod or more. 



"In Tower and some of the other northern towns of Minnesota, this 

 usually shy insect takes the place of Dissosteira in the streets and appears 

 as thoroughly at home there as the 'Carolina loucst' in the southern cities. 

 At Tower we have noted that while it is abundant on the streets during the 

 warmer part of the day, it disappears by about five o'clock in the -after- 



