ORTHOPTEKA OF INDIANA. 357 



way from five to 20 minutes. Sometimes, as for instance where a 

 bud comes in the way. the preparation of the twig mil require a 

 comparatively long time, and after the ovipositor is brought up and 

 a futile attempt made to place the egg, it will be let down again and 

 the work of preparing the twig more vigorously prosecuted a second 

 time. 



"The number of eggs laid at one time varies from two to 30, the 

 first bat<?hes containing more than those deposited later in the season. 

 Eacti female produces from 150 to 200, or perhaps more, and I have 

 known them to lay on the edge of a leaf, or of a piano-cover, or along 

 a piece of cord. 



"These eggs, as already remarked, are rather fiat when laid, but 

 become more swollen, so that they have a narrower look as they 

 approach the hatching period in spring. During the early part of 

 May, the embryo larva — which lies straight in its egg, completely 

 filling it, with the legs bent up as in a pupa, and the long antennae 

 curling around them — attains its full development, and after hours 

 of tedious contracting and expanding movements, manages to burst 

 the egg open at its top or exposed end, along the narrow edge, and 

 generally about half way down. Through this opening young Katy 

 slowly emerges, undergoing a moult during the process, and leav- 

 ing its first skin, in a crumpled white mass, attached to the empty 

 bivalvular egg shell. Including hind legs and antennae it measures 

 at this time, rather more than an inch in length, the body alone 

 being one-eighth of an inch long; and in contemplating it, one can 

 not but wonder how the long, stiff legs and great length of antennse, 

 together with the plump body, could so recently have been com- 

 pressed into the comparatively small shell to which we see it clinging. 



"In from ten to twenty minutes after hatching, these little beings 

 essay their first leaps, and soon begin to eat with avidity. They feed 

 with almost equal relish upon a great variety of foliage, but I have 

 found that when reared upon very succulent leaves, such as lettuce, 

 cabbage, purslain and the like, they are less hardy, and do not attain 

 so great an age as when nourished upon more ligneous food, as the 

 leaves of oak, apple or cherry. 



"The first notes of this katydid are heard about the middle of July. 

 and the species is in full song by the first of August. 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 25 to 30 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. 



