374 STUDIES IN AMERICAN TETTIGONIIDAE (oRTHOPTERa) 



Song rather loud (louder than that of N. melanorhinus and 

 lyristes, not as loud as caudellianus and not nearly as loud as 

 robustiis), "ziit-ziit-ziit-ziit"— a vibrant rattling note rising and 

 falling in intensity, often ceasing as if from exhaustion. The num- 

 ber of consecutive times without pause that this sound was pro- 

 duced were on one occasion counted, 26-14-20-20-17; usually 

 on a warm evening an undisturbed singer would average about as 

 above before ceasing for a few seconds. The song is rapid, the 

 sounds being emitted on warm evenings about 3 to the second. 

 Weather conditions probably have some effect upon the song of 

 the species, but elaborate and protracted field study would be neces- 

 sary to determine the degree of such.^ When near a colony of 

 this species on favorable evenings after dark the air is \4brant 

 with the sound, as several singers cease others take up the con- 

 stantly rising and falling song, but at no very great distance the 

 sound is inaudible. The insects were found not to begin to sing 

 until nearly sunset and before dark often ceased their song upon 

 any attempt to approach the spot,i'' after dark the singing was much 

 more vigorous and the singers could then often be approached with 

 a light and cautiously seized while singing and moving about in 

 the bushy weeds and heavy grasses into which they climbed while 

 stridulating. After the air is chilled toward midnight the singers 

 become audibly fewer and their stridulations less intense. The 

 species is found very local but often in large numbers in the 

 heavier tangles of weeds, low bushy plants or heavy reeds in both 

 fresh and salt water marshes. Females were found often in grasses 

 near the singers; one was taken ovipositing in a grass blade at 

 dusk. 



The present species is known on the Atlantic coast from New 

 Haven, Connecticut, to Raleigh, North Carolina. Elsewhere 

 it is known from but single specimens taken at widely separated 



9 Such differences have probably misled AUard, who describes the song 

 of a single male of this species (as hruneri) from Thompson's Mills, Georgia, 

 as being stronger and sharper than that of exiliscanorus heard at Washing- 

 ton, District of Columbia. Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., XII, p. 122 (1910). 



1" These observations are from experience at numerous localities on the 

 New Jersey coast; on Tinicum Island, Pennsylvania,, the large series was, 

 however, taken with ease at dusk, on which occasion the males were singu- 

 larly fearless even at that hour. 



