76 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Vol. xm 



The males and females do not differ in their ordinary habits, ex- 

 cept that most of the time the males perform a chirping stridulation 

 with their short wings. The females are wingless and consequently 

 silent. The usual chirps of the male are uttered in regular and rather 

 slow succession, averaging between 90 and 100 a minute. One, 

 while stridulating for three minutes, made 97, 97 and 96 chirps a 

 minute respectively. When disturbed, they stridulate sharply and 

 rapidly in short, quick series of chirps having a decidedly angry tone. 



Their food may be said to consist normally of plants. In some 

 places they completely strip the vegetation of leaves and blossoms, and, 

 where migrating leave behind them a great tract of devastation. On 

 the other hand, individuals in stationary bands may be watched for a 

 long time and never be seen to eat of the plants they inhabit. Where 

 such bands exist the vegetation shows no evidence of the presence of 

 the insects. Although their appetite for plant food is thus rather 

 erratic, and hard to account for in its variation, they have a liking for 

 flesh that is insatiable and which, owing to the absence of other means 

 for satisfying it, commonly leads to cannibalism. It is a frequent 

 sight to see one or several individuals eagerly devouring one of their 

 comrades, the latter generally not yet dead. They apparently never 

 attack and disable a healthy individual, but, whenever one becomes in- 

 jured or weakened from any cause his neighbors at once turn upon and 

 devour him alive. Mercy or feeling for another's pain are sentiments 

 they have no notion of. Since an individual does not die until almost 

 completely destroyed, many gruesome sights may be seen. Such 

 fragments as a head, one side of the body, the ovipositor and a leg or 

 so remain alive, and the palpi and ovipositor move about and the 

 legs kick until all is devoured. 



A female was observed eagerly feeding on the viscera of a male 

 who was lying on his back. She was pulling the intestine out through 

 a hole in the side of the male's abdomen regardless of the kicking and 

 struggling of the victim. Presently another male came along and 

 shared in the feast, the poor male that was having his vitals pulled out 

 of his body struggling still more desperately, but this did not appear 

 to affect the appetites of his devourers. Soon the female pulled off a 

 leg and sucked out the contents through the open end with great relish. 

 Then she went back to feeding through the hole in the abdomen. 



In another interesting case a male was seen carrying off a live head 

 and thorax with most of the alimentary canal attached. Two other 



