1915.) F. H. GrAvEty: Indian Insects, Myriapods, etc. 489 
ducing; and when courting a female he changes it for a low 
whirring sound accompanied at regular short intervals by an 
abrupt squeak. 
The first occasion on which I heard this was early in the rains 
of last year. JI had three or four adult males in a glassjar. They 
stridulated as usual till I chanced to catch a couple of females 
which I put with them, when a change in their behaviour was at 
once apparent. First one and then another would approach one 
of the females and commence his courting notes, vibrating his 
elytra to produce the continuous whirring sound to all appearance 
just as when producing his ordinary song, but giving them periodic 
jerks which synchronized with the sudden squeaks. And this in 
spite of the fact that the females were all in their penultimate 
stage, and so failed to respond to any advances. 
Some time later I heard these peculiar notes under different 
circumstances. On entering my office on a holiday, when the 
room was quite quiet, I heard what I at first took to be the 
squeaking of an electric fan. But it came from a direction where 
there were no fans, and on following it up I became aware of 
a low whirring sound accompanying it which suggested that I 
might be on the track of a pair of crickets, courting under natural 
conditions, although it was still early in the afternoon. The 
noise was located in a narrow covered space open at both ends, 
and on inserting a stick at one end a pair of common house-crickets 
soon appeared at the other. Unfortunately one of them escaped, so 
I was unable to make further observations upon them. 
On another occasion, when attracted by the normal note of 
a male, I found him to be accompanied by a female to whose pos- 
terior end a small white body—presumably a spermatophore—was 
attached. So it may be customary for the male to entertain his 
mate for a time with his normal song after the pairing is over. 
Shortly afterwards I saw the female put her head between her legs, 
seize the spermatophore in her jaws and devour it. She was ina 
jar with several males, and I chanced to notice during the next 
morning that another spermatophore had been attached. This 
disappeared soon after, but I do not know how.! 
EMBIOPTERA. 
The first Indian Embiid whose habits appear to have attracted 
any attention was Oligotoma michaeli, of which specimens were 
transported from India to England in orchid roots, among which 
they lived in silken tunnels, and to which they proved destructive 
(see Michael in Gardener’s Chronicle, Dec. 30, 1876 and M’Lachlan 
J. Linn. Soc. London, Zool. XIII, pp. 373-384, pl. xxi). The first 
observations made in India appear to be those of Wood-Mason on 
| Changes in the notes of American locusts, and their association with court- 
ship, are noted by Allard (Ent. News, XXV, 1914, pp. 463-466). They have, | 
believe, been noted in other Orthoptera saltatoria also, but I do not know where 
the observations have appeared. 
