208 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



back and forth until he has succeeded in changing ihem to their original 

 position. If, however, we make the change as soon as he has moulted, 

 and while the tegmina are still soft, the new position will be retained 

 after they are hardened. If we now attempt to change them back to tlie 

 natural position the cricket will return them to the unnatural one. As f?r 

 as I could tell, such a cricket could chirp just as well as one whose 

 tegmina had not been tampered with, although he was using the sound- 

 producing organ which would naturally not have been used at all. As 

 indicated above, this organ — the " file " on the under side of the left 

 tegmen — is unused in about 987o o^ our native Gryllus, and yet it is, to 

 all appearance, as well developed as the other. I have counted and 

 measured the " teeth," studied the venation of the "drum," and, in short, 

 have failed to discover any significant difference between the sound organs 

 of the two tegmina. 



In the Locustid?e we find a very different condition. Here there is 

 no file on the right tegmen, and this is always — as far as I have seen — 

 carried under the left. However that may be, we have in this very 

 closely-related family, which is really scarcely distinct from the Gryllidse,* 

 a specialization which is just hinted at (but in the reverse way, /. ^., right 

 uppermost) in Gryllus. The constant position of the tegmina is here 

 nearly reached, but the unused sound organ is still intact. 



The condition of the females is also interesting. It is easy to see a 

 possible reason why the female should change the tegminal position more 

 often than the male. The tegmina do not overlap so far. But why is it 

 that in spite of this, with the exception of the New Fane, Ver., collection, 

 about twice as many have the right tegmen uppermost as otherwise ? Is 

 it a lagging behind the males in specialization and an inheritance from 

 them ? 



The mention of inheritance brings me to the final and most important 



point. Is the abnormal left-tegmen-uppermost condition inherited ? I 



am trying to test this, but "left-winged" material is very scarce. If it is 



inherited, and if isolation is a true biologic factor, there ought to be 



localities where the " left-winged " condition is common, perhaps even 



prevalent. I made the unfortunate mistake of asking Mr. C. D. Howe, 



who kindly sent me what I have from New Fane, Ver., for only 

 females, as at that time I was interested chiefly in females, and so I have 

 not, now, any males from that place. Thirty-two is rather a small 



*There seem to me to be more fundamental differences between Gryllotalpa, 

 Grylloides and Gryllus than between Gryllus and the Locustid^e. 



