142 



During the day they keep themselves hidden among the foliage and flow- 

 ers of various plants, but as night approaches they come forth and the male 

 begins his incessant, shrill, chirping note, which he continues with little or 

 no intermission till the approach of morning warns him to desist. Prof. 

 McNeill, in Psyche, loc. cit., has given an excellent description of the songs 

 of the diflferent species of Oecanthus. "That of niveus," he says, "is the well 

 known t-r-r — r-ee: t-r-r — r-e-e, repeated without pause or variation about 

 seventy times in a minute. It is heard only at ni»ht and occasionally on 

 cloudy days, but in the latter case it is only an isolated song, and never the 

 full chorus of the night-song produced by many wings whose vibrations in 

 exact unison produces that characteristic 'rhythmic beat,' as Burroughs 

 has happily phrased it." 



The females of niveus do much harm by ovipositing in the tender canes or 

 shoots of various plants, as the raspberry, grape, plum, peach, etc. ; no less 

 than 321 eggs, by actual count, having been found in a raspberry cane 22 

 inches in length. The eggs are laid in autumn and at first the injury is 

 shown only by a slight roughness of the bark, but afterwards the cane or 

 branch frequently dies above the puncture, or is so much injured as to be 

 broken off by the first high wind. If the injured and broken canes con- 

 taining the eggs be collected and burned in early spring the number of in- 

 sects for that season will be materially lessened. 



Niveus, however, in part if not wholly, offsets this injurious habit by its 

 carnivorous propensities, as the young, which are hatched in June, feed 

 for some time upon the various species of aphides or plant lice which infest 

 the shrubbery they frequent. Mr. B. D. Walsh, in the Practical Entomolo- 

 gist, loc. cit., was the first entomologist to call attention to this carnivorous 

 habit, but it seems little attention was given to the matter. Recently, 

 however, it has come up again, and in Insect Life, for November, 1891, Miss 

 Mary E. Murtfeldt, of St. Louis, Mo., has given a most interesting account 

 of some experiments and observations concerning it which were made by 

 her. From this article the following extract is taken: "Some leaves of 

 plum infested with a delicate species of yellow aphis were put into a jar 

 with the young of Oecanthus niveus, but attracted no immediate attention. As 

 twilight deepened, however, the crickets awakened to greater activity. By 

 holding the jar against the light of the window, or bringing it suddenly 

 into the lamp light, the little nocturnal hunters might be seen hurrying 

 with a furtive, darting movement over the leaves and stems, the head 

 bent down, the antennro stretched forward, and every sense apparently 



