June, 1905.] Sxodgrass : The Coulee Cricket. 79 



square inch of surface. About fifteen crossed any given point every 

 minute. Between two points two inches apart one hundred and fifty 

 crossed in five minutes, and, by another count ninety in three minutes, 

 either giving thirty in one minute. This would be fifteen in single 

 file. When they reached the fence they systematically turned to the 

 right, i. e. , to the east, whether the ground sloped uphill or downhill, 

 and travelled parallel with the fence. A few tried to climb over. 



The fence consisted merely of six-inch boards set on edge, banked 

 with earth on the side away from the crickets, and topped with a strip 

 of tin projecting about an inch toward them and bent slightly down- 

 ward. Many miles of this had been constructed in the Badger 

 Mountains and it effectually kept the crickets back from the wheat 

 fields in the valley below. By means of ditches and holes dug along 

 the inner side of the fence enormous numbers of the insects were cap- 

 tured and killed. The moving horde simply flowed over the edges of 

 these holes like some viscid liquid poured out upon the ground. 

 Those on the rim of a hole were helplessly shoved over and in by the 

 crowd coming behind, and in turn were followed by those that pushed 

 them in. Thus they piled up until wagon-loads of them accumulated. 

 Each hole soon contained a wriggling squirming, angry mass of life 

 that extinguished itself through the fierce fighting and mutual smother- 

 ing of the individuals thus heaped upon one another. 



The average daily life of an adult individual is about as follows : 

 The first half of the morning is spent in feeding, in walking about, 

 or in silent meditation. From about ten o'clock until noon mating 

 takes place between the males and females. During this act the male 

 is beneath the female. The former while courting the female chirps 

 continually with his wings and, advancing backward and obliquely 

 sideways toward the female from in front, tries to push his abdomen 

 beneath hers. Sometimes the female makes no resentment but often 

 the male has his patience sorely tried. One was observed for twenty 

 minutes attempting to make a female accept him before she finally 

 did so. 



Although the male is the active party during courtship the ferti- 

 lization of the female depends on an act of her own. The ovipositor 

 is directed downward or its tip braced against the ground ; the open- 

 ing of the bursa copulatrix behind the eighth sternum is then brought 

 against the tip of the male's abdomen. After about five minutes a 

 large white mass of tough albuminous matter is ejected by the male 



