56 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES ON THE LOCUSTID.E, WITH DESCRIPTION OF A 



NEW SPECIES. 



BY WM. T. DAVIS, STATEN ISLAND, N. Y. 



Whether they fill the listener with a train of happy thoughts, as Gilbert 

 White says, or whether they produce a sadness because the days of sum- 

 mer are nearly gone, as Dr. Harris asserts, the songs of crickets and 

 other Orthoptera have, nevertheless, the merit of always being interesting. 

 An insect that can sing — that has something to say — even though it be 

 the same, night after night, enjoys a sort of individuality, and this long 

 discussion of the Katydids and the quiet murmur of the tree crickets, 

 constitute one of the chief charms of our summer evenings. But they do 

 not always sing or stridulate quite alike, and sometimes, too, their 

 shrilling apparatus is slightly deformed or injured, producing some curious 

 sounds when in use. 



I once heard a Katydid whose singing apparatus was out of order, 

 and the sounds given forth contrasted strangely with those of a rival male 

 in an adjoining tree. Amblycorypha retinervis produces two somewhat 

 different songs, or perhaps more correctly, varies the same song in time 

 or extent of utterance, so that unless the same individual is listened to for 

 some time, the notes might be attributed to different species. This insect 

 often lays its eggs on the honeysuckle, and I once observed a female on 

 the 1 6th of Sept., ovipositing on a low tree by the road side, gradually 

 biting the bark into a ridge, along which the eggs were laid, tile fashion. 



On Staten Island, the first Conocephalus that is heard in the garden is 

 efisiger, and with ik-ik-ik, as if sharpening a saw, enlivens low bushes and 

 particularly the corn patch. This insect seems to especially delight in 

 perching near the top of a corn-stalk and there giving forth its rather im- 

 pulsive song. I have often watched one crawl, with many a spiral turn, 

 up the stem, fiddling all the while. My notes on its first heard stridula- 

 tion show considerable uniformity, and the average date may be taken as 

 July 15th. 



Conocephalus dissimilis is more of a low grass and weed loving insect 

 than C. e?isigej-, and also comes later in the season. I have found this 

 insect stridulating when its head was gone, picked off" perhaps by some 



