PSYCHE. 



[January 1S91. 



is this effect of many united songs that 

 has led the same author to speak of 

 "purring" crickets. Thoreau calls it the 

 "slumbrous breathing" and the "intenser 

 dream" of crickets, but Hawthorne has 

 given it a more spiritual interpretation 

 than either Burroughs or Thoreau. He 

 describes it as "audible stillness" and 

 declares that "if moonlight could be 

 heard it would sound like that." Prof. C. 

 V. Riley says of the song of lati\ erinis 

 that it "is continuous and recalls the 

 trilling of a high pitched dog whistle in 

 the distance." He also says "The com- 

 mingled shrill of this species recalls also 

 the distant croaking of frogs in the 

 spring." The song of fasciatus is also a 

 high trill continuing usually for several 

 minutes with the intervals between the 

 trills of very irregular length. It sings 

 all day as well as all night apparently 

 in the bright sunshine as well as on- 

 cloudy days and in the dusk of evening. 

 Angustipennis has a song which re 

 sembles that of fasciatus in some degree, 

 but it is very much fainter and lasts for 

 about five seconds with an equal interval 

 between the trills 



Mr. Scudder says* of the song of niv- 

 eus : "The day song of this insect is ex- 

 ceedingly shrill and may be represented 

 by the following figure [which repre- 

 sents a trill] though the notes vary in 

 rapidity. When slowest they are about 

 sixteen a second. The song is of varied 

 length, sometimes lasting but two or 

 three seconds, sometimes continuing a 

 minute or two uninterruptedly; it is a 

 nearly uniform, equally sustained trill, 



Rep. Geol. N. H., V. I. p. 365-366. 



but the insect often commences its note 

 at a different pitch from the normal one 

 as if it required a little practice to attain 

 it. When singing the tegmina are 

 raised at fully a right angle to the body. 

 The night song consists of ^tkrrr' re- 

 peated incessantly, three parts of song 

 and one of rest in every three seconds." 

 The "day song" descrihed by Mr. Scud- 

 der seems to be the song of fasciatus, 

 while the "night song" certainly resem- 

 bles that of angustipennis more than 

 the song of niveus. Walker's Oecan- 

 thus nigricornis is, I think, nothing 

 but a long-winged fasciatus. Speci- 

 mens of the last-mentioned species with 

 wings extending beyond the elytra as 

 much as .16 of an inch are not uncom- 

 mon. 



Finally, latipennis, according to Prof. 

 Riley, generally chooses the tender 

 shoots of the grape in which to lay its 

 eggs, while niveus prefers the raspberry 

 and blackberry, but is less particular than 

 the first-mentioned species and lays its 

 eggs in many other shrubs and trees. 

 Both of these species with angustipen- 

 nis prefer cultivated ground, but fascia- 

 tus is comparatively rare in such locali- 

 ties and is abundant along weedy road- 

 sides and hedges and in weedy meadows. 

 The females are abundant in late sum- 

 mer and early fall on the various species 

 of Helianthus and Solidago. 



14. Oecanthus angustipennis 

 Fitch. Much less common in the north- 

 ern part of the State than either niveus 

 or fasciatus ; it has been taken at Mo- 

 line Sept. 29. 



15. OecantJnis fasciattis Fitch. Its 



