ORTHOPTEEA OF INDIANA. 361 



The serenade continued thus, ahuost unbroken, from dusk till 

 dawn. A serenade it was in truth — a song of love — of passion, 

 poured out to the listening ears of the other sex. At times a single 

 player dropped out of the chorus. His work, his love-calls had not 

 been in vain. From some leafy retreat, where she had been hidden 

 by day, a lady katydid slowly emerged, and, entranced by the song — 

 by^ to her ears, the tender wooing notes — drew nearer and nearer 

 unto the charmed circle whence the cymbals clanged and shuffled. 

 Their notes became less vigorous. More softly they fell upon her 

 ear, until finally, as she coyly advanced they ceased and the caress of 

 the antenna^ took their place. The other musicians noted the ab- 

 sence of one of their chorus, and sounded their drums the louder, 

 but for most of them their labor was in vain. Many of them doubt- 

 less go through life unblessed by the presence of the gentler sex, 

 clanging their nightly calls from mid-July to the coming of the hoar- 

 frost, and to its biting nips finally succumbing, possessed by the 

 thought — if a katydid can think — that this earth is a desolate and 

 cruel abiding place for such as they. So have the most of bachelors 

 — human and otherwise — doubtless thought, as in the past they 

 yielded up the ghost. 



Of the call of this species Mr. Scudder has written: "•The note, 

 \v'hich sounds like xr, has a shocking lack of melody; the poets who 

 have sung its praises must have heard it at the distance that lends 

 enchantment. In close proximity the sound is excessively rasping 

 and grating, louder and hoarser than I have heard from any other 

 of the Locustarians in America or in Europe, and the Locustarians 

 are the noisest of all Orthoptera. Since these creatures are abundant 

 wherever they occur, the noise produced by them, on an evening spe- 

 cially favorable to their song, is most discordant. Usually the notes 

 are two in number, rapidly repeated at short intervals. Perhaps 

 nine out of ten will ordinarily give this number; but occasionally a 

 stubborn insect persists in sounding the triple note — ('Katy-she- 

 did'); and as katydids appear desirous of defiantly answering their 

 neighbors in the same measure, the proximity of a treble-voiced 

 songster demoralizes a whole neighborhood, and a curious medley re- 

 sults; notes from some individuals may then be heard all the while, 

 scarcely a moment's time intervening between their stridulations, 

 some nearer, others at a greater distance; so that the air is filled 

 by these noisy troubadours with an indescribably confused and grat- 

 ing clatter." 



According to Kilcy the eggs are thrust, l)y means of the sharp ovi- 

 positor, into crevices and soft substances, and probably, in a state of 



53-Geol. 



