March, 1906.] CAUDELL : CyRTOPHYLLI OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 



areas rub over each other, like the tympani of the males, the right 

 elytron sliding beneath the left one. The resulting sound is a sharp 

 scraping note heard easily for several yards. This sound is made by 

 the female when disturbed by handling but whether or not it is ever made 

 voluntarily in nature is not known, but it presumably is when the insect 

 is disturbed by any cause. Not enough study has been given the 

 various species of these interesting insects in nature to admit of their 

 separation on song and habit. But little is recorded regarding their 

 breeding habits. Jaeger, Life of North American Insects, p. 108, says 

 the female oviposits in the soil but his observations, which are also 

 given by Lord in Science Gossip for July, 1865, must have been faulty 

 as the eggs are quite surely deposited in crevices in the bark of trees. 

 Professor Riley secured eggs from a female in captivity. They were 

 inserted into a piece of cork and some into crannies in the breeding 

 cage. On October first of last year Mr. Barber secured a female 

 of perspicillatus ovipositing by night on Plummers Island, Md. The 

 ovipositor was inserted into the bark of a small Elm tree a few feet 

 above the ground. This is probably not the usual place of oviposition, 

 the eggs more likely being inserted into the bark of large trees some 

 considerable distance from the ground. The young feed on the leaves 

 and very probably rarely or never leave the shelter of the tree upon 

 which they were born. They mature in July and live till killed by the 

 coming of cold weather. In the vicinity of Washington the males 

 commence stridulating in the latter part of July and continue till about 

 the first of October, rarely later. 



The song is heard from dark to nearly daylight throughout August 

 and well into September. But as the nights grow cooler they stop 

 earlier and the survivers that live to sound their note after the middle 

 of October rarely do so at night, the notes being feeble and made dur- 

 ing the afternoon. Mr. Barber has heard the note of perspicillatus as 

 late as the first week in November. But evidently very few indi- 

 viduals live that late in the latitude of Washington. 



Considerable doubt exists as to whether or not these insects ever 

 fly. I have repeatedly endeavored to persuade specimens to fly, but 

 without success. Both Mr. Barber and I have succeeded in getting 

 specimens to spread the wings and sail to the ground, alighting with 

 a thud, but no attempt was made by the insects towards actual flight. 

 They probably soar from one tree to another after the manner of the 

 flying-squirrel. They may also at times actually fly as Mr. McAtee 



