[February 1S91. 



PSYCHE. 



23 



fasciatns should differ so much in sing- 

 ing habits, the latter singing as con- 

 stantly in daytime as at night, while the 

 former is strictly nocturnal in its song, 

 we have only to consider, in order to 

 remove the difficulty, that fasciatus, 

 being terrestrial, is not easily exposed 

 by his song to the attack of birds, while 

 nive?is would inevitably be discovered, 

 should he venture to sing when his bird 

 enemies were most active. This con- 

 sideration will explain equally well, of 

 course, why the arboreal katydids, 

 Microcentrum, Amblycorypha and Cyr- 

 tophyllus, are silent in the day time 

 and why the only one of the group that 

 sings in the day time is terrestrial rather 

 than arboreal. The case of Conoceph- 

 alus robnstns offers a still better illus- 

 tration of the truth of this theory. This 

 species lives both upon trees and in the 

 grass ; but while its song may be heard 

 in the grass while the sun is high, I 

 have never heard it from trees until after 

 dark. 



25. Conocephahis ensiger Harr. 

 This species is common in Northern Il- 

 linois from the first of August until 

 frost. It occurs as frequently along the 

 weedy roadsides and in the gardens of 

 suburbs as in the country. Its song is 

 a loud rasping zip-zip-zip repeated in- 

 definitely. It does not begin to sing 

 until dark. 



26. Conocephains nebrascensis Bru- 

 nei'. Is a less common species than the 

 preceding ; not reported farther east 

 than Illinois, but occurring as far west 

 as Nebraska. It is more shy in its hab- 

 its than ensiger, never being found, so 



far as I am aware, about the streets of a 

 town. Like both of the other species 

 occurring here it seems to have a great 

 liking for Johnston grass, a species of 

 Andropogon ; but it is by no means par- 

 ticular in its habitat, as it may be found 

 in little colonies in weedy or grassy pla- 

 ces throughout the locality it inhabits. 

 If ensiger may be said to sing the first 

 part of the song of Orchelimian vulgarc, 

 the well-known zip-zip-zip-ze-e-e-e, ne- 

 brascensis may be said with equal truth 

 to sing the last part of the song, that rep- 

 resented by the ze-e-e-e ; but the sound 

 is much more resonant, being really 

 in quality much more like the song of 

 a Cicada, but not so loud and without 

 a swell. It begins to sing earlier in 

 the evening than ensiger. 



27. Conocephahis robttstus Scudd. 

 My cabinet contains a single specimen 

 of this species captured on the sand-hill 

 referred to below. Its song is indistin- 

 guishable from that of dissimilis. The 

 specimen mentioned above was captured 

 the 2Sth of August. 



All the species of Conocephahis seem 

 to possess more intelligence than is 

 usual in Orthoptera and they are about 

 the most difficult of the order to ap- 

 proach. In escaping they usually slip 

 or fall into the grass instead of jumping 

 or flying ; but they seem to fully under- 

 stand that they are very well protected 

 by their color and form. If approached 

 very cautiously they often remain quite 

 still upon the stem of grass upon which 

 you have surprised them with the usu- 

 ally well-founded expectation that you 

 will not be able to distinguish them from 



