228 FAMILY VI — LOCUSTID^. 



dwells. If found in Minnesota it will very likeh' occur in 

 small colonies; it is most active during August and Sep- 

 tember. 



Prof. Scudder, in describing the loud notes of this insect, 

 writes: "The note, which sounds like x r, 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 exceedingly 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 noisiest of all Orthop- 

 tera. Since these creatures are abundant whenever they 

 occur, the noise produced by them, on an evening espe- 

 cially favorable to their song, is most discordant. Usually 

 the notes are two in number, rapidly repeated at short in- 

 tervals. Perhaps nine out of ten will ordinarily give this 

 number; but occasionally a stubborn insect presists in sound- 

 ing the triple note (Katy-she-did) ; and as Katydids appear 

 desirous of defiantly answering their neighbors in the same 

 measure, the proximity of a triple-voiced songster demor- 

 alizes a whole neighborhood, and a curious medley results; 

 notes from some individuals may then be heard all the^vhile, 

 scarcely a moment's time intervening between their stridu- 

 lations, some nearer, others at a greater distance; so that 

 the air is filled by these noisy troubadours with an indescrib- 

 ahXy confused and grating clatter." 



The sub-family Conocephalinas contains two tribes, sep- 

 arated as follows : 



a. Fore and middle femora spined beneath. ..Conocephalini. 

 aa. Fore and middle femora unarmed beneath... .Xiphidiini. 



Only one genus represents the tribe Conocephalini in 

 Minnesota. 



GENUS Conocephalus Thunberg (1815). 



Head with the vertex more or less prolonged forward 

 and upward into a cone, with a pointed tooth beneath ; face 



