536 FAMILY VII. TETTIGONIIDJE. THE KATYDIDS. 



more uniform in length, and the color, while of slightly different 

 shades of brown or green in the same species, according to season 

 and habitat, does not run to the extremes of variation as in 

 Conocephalus. 



The generic name, Orcliclimuin, the literal meaning of which 

 i.3 "I dance in the meadows/' is a most appropriate one, for low, 

 moist meadows everywhere swarm with these insects from July 

 to November; and though waltzes and quadrilles are probably 

 not indulged in, yet the music and song, the wooing and love-mak- 

 ing which are the natural accompaniments of those amusements, 

 are ever present, and make the short season of mature life of 

 the participants a seemingly happy one. 



Allard (1910b) says: "In attempting to capture the 

 Orchelimums it is amusing to observe their attempts to hide by 

 moving around the stalk of grass they are resting on. As the hand 

 moves toward the stalk to grasp one, the wary creature always 

 moves to the opposite side so as to keep the stalk directly between 

 it and the observer, just as a gray squirrel moves around a tree 

 trunk to escape the hunter. In this protective movement it hugs 

 the grass stem as close as possible, stretching out its long, slender 

 hind legs behind it, until they are parallel with and almost flat 

 against the grass stem." 



Redtenbacher recognized but eleven species of his subgenus 

 Orclit'lhnwn, ten of these from the United States. Scudder 

 (1900, 73) admitted 18 to his catalogue. Kirby (1900, 371) in- 

 creased the number to 24. R. & H. in their synopsis (1915a,) 

 founded a new genus for one of these, restricted the genus Orclieli- 

 iiiuin to North America and Mexico, described five new species 

 and relegated so many of those recognized by Redtenbacher, Scud- 

 der and Kirby to synonymy that, in the end, they had only 17 

 North American species treated as valid in their work. 



In my opinion the synonymy of the genus is even yet in a very 

 unsettled state. R. & H. made a laudable attempt to straighten 

 it out but their conclusions regarding the older names of the 

 European writers were based on the very brief descriptions of 

 those writers and not on an examination and comparison with the 

 types. For that reason I cannot agree with all their conclusions 

 and synonymy. 



The species of OrcheUiniini are so numerous and so alike in 

 general appearance that it is very difficult to prepare a key which 

 is satisfactory and at the same time easily followed. R. & H. have 

 shown that one of the major characters used by both McNeil I 



