108 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



The Katydid is nearly one and a half inches long, and 

 its wings when expanded are about three inches wide. Its 

 wings are of a pale green, and its wing-covers of a dark 

 green color, which, however, fades away and becomes brown 

 when the insect is dead and dried. This change of color 

 may be prevented, as I have before mentioned in regard to 

 the Gryllus Carolina, by taking out its intestines imme- 

 diately after death, and filling the abdominal cavity with 

 cotton, which is easily done by making a longitudinal in- 

 cision through the under part of the hind-body with a sharp 

 penknife. 



The wing-covers are interwoven with veins resembling 

 those of a leaf, and in the males have a hard, glassy mem- 

 brane at the base of each, which is shaped somewhat like a 

 human eye, and which, being rubbed together by the saw- 

 ing-like motion of their wing-covers, produces the sound 

 peculiar to this insect. The poor females are destitute of 

 these musical organs, and are consequently obliged to keep 

 silence and listen to the music of their lords ; but they are 

 provided with a formidable-looking sword-like ovipositor at 

 the extremity of the abdomen, with which they pierce holes 

 in the ground for the purpose of depositing their eggs. 

 These eggs are generally laid in the fall, and are hatched 

 out in the ensuing spring. 



A very close and interesting observation of the conduct 

 of these insects may be made every autumn by putting a 

 pair of them into a wide glass vessel, having the bottom 

 covered with turf, which, however, must be sprinkled with 

 water every day. As soon as the evening begins the female 

 will commence laying her eggs and depositing them in the 

 ground, and the male will announce in loud tones that Katy- 

 did-it. If you preserve these eggs in the turf through the 

 winter, and open them in the following spring, you will 

 find the insect in a perfect condition, except being destitute 

 of wings. It is a very singular fact, and shows the gener- 



