270 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



resemble the words " Katy did," with variations. 

 Riley says that the first notes of Microcentrum 

 retinerve are heard about the middle of July, and 

 by the first of August the insect is in full song. 

 He describes the production of the notes as follows : 



" The wing-covers are partially opened by a 

 sudden jerk and the notes produced by the gradual 

 closing of the same. The song consists of a series 

 of from twenty-five to thirty raspings as of a stiff 

 quill drawn across a coarse file. There are about 

 five of these raspings or trills per second, all alike, 

 and with equal intervals, except the last two or 

 three, which, with the closing of the wing-covers, 

 run into each other. The whole strongly recalls 

 the slow turning of a child's wooden rattle, ending 

 by a sudden jerk of the same ; and this prolonged 

 rattling, which is peculiar to the male, is invariably 

 and instantly answered by a single sharp ' chirp ' 

 or ' tschick ' from one or more females, who 

 produce the sound by a sudden upward jerk of the 

 wings." 



Scudder says they have two songs ; one they sing 

 by day, and the other at night. He says that the 

 passing of a cloud will cause them to break off in 

 the middle of the day-song and suddenly start the 

 night-song, and that by imitating either by day 

 you can get a suitable response from them, but at 

 night they have only one song. 



Harris says of another species, Cyrtophyllus con- 

 cavus, that it mounts to the topmost twigs of the 

 trees in the evening, beginning " his noisy babble, 



