574 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



musical sound life has ever evolved. If the little cricket, Anaxipha 

 eodgua^ can produce musical tone or pitch in a single forward draw 

 of the scraper over the microscopic teeth of the file vein, it is natural 

 to assume that each tooth is adding its single tone to this composite 

 note which involves all the teeth to produce those points of sound 

 constituting its characteristic chirp. 



SONGS OF THE MEADOW KATYDIDS ORCHELIMUM AND CONOCE- 

 PHALUS, SUBFAMILY CONOCEPHALINAE 



The katydids alone appear to have evolved rather intricate little 

 songs, combining in one way or another both fast and slow manipu- 

 lations of the scraper over the file vein. It is evident that this com- 

 bination is possible in the direction of variety, and that the musical 

 sense of life has strangely felt it and made special use of it. Some 

 of the meadow katydids, Orchelimum, as, for instance, the pretty 

 pine-tree katydid, O. niiiior, have been content with brief lisping 

 phrases s-s-s-s — s-s-s-s-s, making use of a series of wing shuffles for 

 each phrase. This is merely a counterpart of the leisurely chirp of 

 the cricket, in which there are several component strokes of the 

 scraper over the file vein for each phrase. The majority of the 

 Orchelimums, however, have brought more complexity into their 

 running songs. They have introduced a series of staccato lisps, tsip, 

 involving single wing strokes of very slow delivery, to precede the 

 longer monotone in the production of which the wings fairly hum or 

 buzz with their rapid contacts of the scraper over the file vein. The 

 normal song runs thus : Tsip-tsip-tsip-tsip-tseeeeeeeeeeeeee, tsip-tsip- 

 tsip. The majority of the Orchelimums have adopted these more 

 complex time relations. 



Among the smaller meadow grasshoppers, Conocephalus^ which are 

 closely allied to the Orchelimums, we find combinations of fast and 

 slow time relations other than those the Orchelimums have adopted. 

 The smaller meadow katydid, C. stnctus, simply " sings " at high 

 speed with its constant lisping monotone s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s, in a way 

 similar to that of such coneheads as Neoccmocephalus retusits, N. trl- 

 ops^ N. rohiistus, and others. The smaller meadow katydid, C. fasci- 

 atus, like most of the Orchelimums, begins with a number of staccato 

 lisps, before speeding up with the final lisping monotone, tip-tip-tip- 

 tseeeeeeeeeee. O. brevipennis uses a minimum of only 1 to 3 single 

 wing strokes which precede one, tw^o, or three brief, faint, high-speed 

 lisping phrases. The song may be expressed thus: tip-tip-tseeee- 

 tseeee-tseeee. The phases are very brief. In the case of 0. nemoralis, 

 the song is rather distinctive. A series of very rapidly produced 

 staccato lisps, making an almost continuous monotone, precedes a 

 run of 2 to 30 or more very brief, lisping phrases, before they are 

 again repeated. It is seen from these examples that the Orchelimums 



