26 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



antenna? over the edge of the leaf. This continued for about five minutes, 

 when the male sought the female on the under side of the leaf. This she 

 apparently resented, and ran out a little farther. The male at intervals 

 advanced towards her, elevating his tegmina and playing short, low notes. 



The courting began at 4 p.m. and continued for twenty minutes, 

 when they were both on the upper side of the leaf. At first the male 

 approached the female head first, and when she retreated jumped back 

 with a rapid jerk of the body. During the last ten minutes he made many 

 attempts to slip the abdomen under the female, singing meanwhile the 

 peculiar low notes, but her retreating prevented this. Finally the female did 

 not retreat, and when another attempt was made mounted the back of the 

 male, elevated her head in a curious attitude against a point about two-thirds 

 from the base of his tegmina, and copulation followed, but lasted for a very 

 short time, two or three seconds. The female then mounted his back 

 farther and began to feed on the glands that are situated just back of the 

 base of the hind wings. It seemed that she tired of this every few 

 minutes, for she would run off a litile way and the male would pursue 

 her, singing, and, by pushing his abdomen under her, persuade her to 

 continue. Sometimes the female would return of her own accord. This 

 alternation of feeding or biting on the glands of the male continued for 

 about thirty minutes, when I left them. When I returned they had disap- 

 peared. In other pairs I have seen it terminated by the female running away 

 altogether. It very likely lasts for an hour or more, and possibly always 

 follows copulation. What the nature of the glandular secretion is, if there 

 is such,l do not know, and why the male so sedulously pursues the female 

 to induce her to feed upon them is another puzzle. This feeding on the 

 glands I have also noticed in O. niveus, and the performance was the 

 same. In this insect it occurs at night, and may be observed by means 

 of a lantern. After you become familiar with cricket notes you can 

 generally tell whether pairing is going on, because the notes of the male 

 are changed. This is true of the Nemobiids or Ground Crickets, the 

 Gryllids or Field Crickets, and the Oecanthids or Tree Crickets. The 

 nocturnal crickets, such as O. niveus, that pair and oviposit at night are 

 curiously inattentive to artificial light, and will continue their operations 

 with a bright acetylene lamp within a foot of them. 



Blatchley asks this question with regard to the feeding of the female 

 of O./asciatus on the dorsal glands of the male : "Is it possible that in 

 the mating of these Oecanthids the female removes the semen from the 



