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THE SONGS OF OUR GRASSHOPPERS AND CRIOKETS. 

 By Samuel H. Scudder. 



Everyone is familiar in a general way with the songs of our common meadow 

 grasshoppers and of our crickets. But not everyone is aware that much as with birds 

 each different species may ordinarily be distinguished by its peculiar note or call, if 

 sufficiently close attention is paid to it. Moreover, just as one may recognize in a strange 

 song the general group to which a bird belongs, so in many cases one may tell the group 

 to which a given insect belongs whose note is heard for the first time. Indeed every 

 vocal family of animals utters its distinctive cry. In general the crickets have the high- 

 est pitched notes and the short-horned grasshoppers or Acrklians the lowest, the long- 

 horned grasshoppers or Locustarians falling between them. 



Thus each large family group of the Saltatorial or stridulating Orthoptera* may be 

 recognized by the peculiar pitch of its note. This is perhaps due to the extent of the 

 delicate vibrating membrane of the wings which is brought into action, since this is 

 largest in the crickets and smallest and much broken in the Acridians. 



But there is not infrequently some difficulty in distinguishing the song. Indeed in 

 some cases the notes are too shrill to be heard by some ears ; they are beyond their limits 

 of audition. " Crossing the Wengern Alp with a friend ," writes Tyndall in his work on 

 Sound, " the grass on each side of the path swarmed with insects, which, to me, rent the 

 . air with their shrill chirruping. My friend heard nothing of this, the insect world lying 

 beyond his limit of audition." So when I first went to Europe and heard the song of an 

 Orthopteran new to me, I asked a distinguished student of Orthoptera, walking with me 

 by the bush from whence a volume of stridulent song burst forth, what genus it was ; 

 but he could hear no sound whatever. 



Or, again, the notes may be very feeble and be overwhelmed by the volume of other 

 shrilling in the neighborhood. To distinguish them clearly, one must bring his ear to 

 within a few feet, or even inches, of the in«ect during its stridulation — a process which 

 requires great caution lest the shyness of the little violinist should overcome his egotistic 

 love of song. The observer must walk quietly toward the sound until it ceases, and wait 

 motionless for its renewal ; the direction of the chirping can then easily be determined, 

 although its distance is deceptive. After drawing an imaginary line towards the spot 

 from whence the sound proceeds, cautious steps must be taken around the arc of a wide 

 circle until another line is fixed at about a right angle to the first, and the location of the 

 songster approximately determined. Then walking quickly but quietly to within five or 

 six feet of the insect, the observer will fall upon his hands and knees, and produce a quill 

 edge and file, which, on being rubbed together, imitate, with great exactness, the note he 

 has iust heard. He will begin his mock stridulation after a short delay; at first the 

 sounds must be subdued and separated by considerable intervals, then loud and repeated 

 in quick succession; usually a response is heard before a minute has elapsed, and some- 

 times it comes at once. When the insect has forgotten his fears and begins to stridulate 

 violently, the observer may cease operations and carefully approach him. In this way 

 one can place himself within a few inches of any species living in the grass. 



Orthoptera stridulate in four different ways : first, by rubbing the base of one wing- 

 cover upon the other, using for that purpose the veins running through the middle 

 of the wing ; second, by a similar method, but using the veins of the inner part of the 

 wino" third, by rubbing the inner surface of the hind femora against the outer surface of 

 the winff covers; and fourth, by rubbing together the upper surface of the front edge of 

 the wings and the under surface of the wing covers, f The insects which employ the 



* Very few other Orthoptera stridulate at all. 



■f A modification of this is given below under Dictyopkorus rcticulatus. 



