102 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



may open his eyes to these objects. The weevil just described 

 belongs to that type which is rendered less conspicuous by 

 resembling the surface on which it habitually rests. There is 

 always an instinctive behavior possessed by these insects. 

 They remain perfectly quiet when resting on the surface of 

 the bark. In a broad sense what we witness here is protective 

 coloring, similarly shown in the rabbit, the plover, or the 

 partridge, all of which instinctively crouch upon the ground 

 surface, the color of which they resemble. 



The Arboreal Katydid 



The common arboreal katydid is rarely seen, owing to the 

 resemblance of his leaf-like wings to the green leaves of the 

 trees he inhal)its. During one summer a katydid preempted a 

 claim in one of the old apple trees near our country home. 

 It was not until the second day in August that he arrived at 

 maturity. This fact was first made known by the exercise 

 of his musical powers. He kept strictly to the green canopy 

 of dense foliage, where I never caught a glimpse of him. From 

 tiiis time on until the arrival of frost he kept up his stridulation, 

 rarely missing a night. In September, he generally commenced 

 his ".song" between six-fifteen and six-thirty in the evening, 

 varying a little from time to time, and, as near as could be 

 ascertained, closed it at about five o'clock in the morning. 

 The latter time corresponded with the dawn of day. 



Whether or not it was the darkness that came over the earth 

 by six-thirty in the evening which excited him to start his musi- 

 cal apparatus, could not be determined. No artificial sounds 

 of a mimicking nature which I devised could induce him to start 

 earlier in the evening than the time mentioned. When this 

 katydid in the tree commenced singing, another male which I 

 had kept in captivity would often start almost simultaneously 

 with him. But when he was kept indoors, which excluded 

 outside soimds entirely, this sympathy was not exhibited. It 

 would seem from this experience that he was awakened into 

 activity by recognizing his neighbor's sounds. 



After their silence through the day, I heard one katydid 

 stridulating in the nearby woods on September twentieth at 



