ORTHOPTERA. 127 



encloses them. Their eggs are laid in the autumn, and usually 

 are not hatched till the following spring. They are nocturnal in- 

 sects, or at least more active by night than by day. When taken 

 between the fingers, they emit from their mouths a considerable 

 quantity of dark-colored fluid, as do also the locusts or diurnal 

 grasshoppers. They devour the leaves of trees, and of other 

 plants, and lead a solitary life, or at least do not associate and mi- 

 grate from place to place in great swarms, like some of the crickets 

 and the locusts. 



Some of these grasshoppers have the front of the head obtuse, 

 and others have it conical, or prolonged to a point between the 

 antennae. Among the former is the insect, which, from its pe- 

 culiar note, is called the katy-did. Its body is of a pale green 

 color, the wing-covers and wings being somewhat darker. Its 

 thorax is rough like shagreen, and has somewhat the form of a 

 saddle, being curved downwards on each side, and rounded and 

 slightly elevated behind, and is marked by two slightly transverse 

 furrows. The wings are rather shorter than the wing-covers, and 

 the latter are very large, oval, and concave, and enclose the body 

 within their concavity, meeting at the edges above and below, 

 somewhat like the two sides or valves of a pea-pod. The veins 

 are large, very distinct, and netted like those of some leaves, and 

 there is one vein of larger size running along the middle of each 

 wing-cover, and simulating the midrib of a leaf. The musical 

 organs of the male consists of a pair of taborets. They are 

 formed by a thin and transparent membrane stretched in a strong 

 half-oval frame in the triangular overlapping portion of each wing- 

 cover. During the daytime these insects are silent, and conceal 

 themselves among the leaves of trees ; but at night, they quit 

 their lurking places, and the joyous males begin the tell-tale call 

 with which they enliven their silent mates. This proceeds from 

 the friction of the taboret frames against each other when the 

 wing-covers are opened and shut, and consists of two or three dis- 

 tinct notes almost exactly resembling articulated sounds, and cor- 

 responding with the number of times that the wing-covers are 

 opened and shut ; and the notes are repeated, at intervals of a 

 few minutes, for hours together. The mechanism of the taborets, 

 and the concavity of the wing-covers, reverberate and increase the 



