( 238 ) 



X. On the Courtsh/ip of certain European AerldiUlff.. 

 By Professor Edward B. Poulton, M.A., F.E.S., 

 F.L.S., etc. 



[Read April 1st, 189G.] 



The extraordinarily fine and hot weather in Switzerland 

 at the end of August and beginning of September last 

 year (18y5), was very favourable for the observations 

 which are here recorded. I was then staying at the 

 VVeisshorn Hotel, high above Vissoye, in the Val 

 d'Anniviers, 7G90 feet in elevation. Certain species of 

 Acridiida3 were excessively abundant in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the hotel, species moreover which 

 afforded examples of very different methods of courtship. 

 In working at this subject I received the greatest 

 assistance from m}' two friends. Mi-. F. Jenkinson and 

 Mr. F. Y. Dickins : their keen powers of observation 

 enabled me to add many new facts of much interest, and 

 also afforded vahiable confirmation upon the most diffi- 

 cult points. Mr. Jenkinson observed with me for hours 

 together on several occasions, so that we were able to 

 compare our impressions as we received them. 



Dr. Sharp has kindly identified the species for me, 

 comparing my specimens with a Brnnner collection at 

 Cambridge. 



The object of this enquiry was to make out the 

 methods employed by the males in the courtship of the 

 females, and especially the part played by stridulation. 

 Dr. Sharp, in the Cambridge Natural History (Vol. v., 

 p. 286), insists on the insufficiency of observations on this 

 point, and I therefore hope that this work has not been in 

 vain. The following observations suggest that the true 

 sicrnificance of the latter is to be found in its use durino- 

 courtship. In only a single species of those observed, 

 Stethophyma fuscum, did the males commonly stridulate 

 without reference to the females, and merely in rivalry 

 with each other. In all the other sound-producing species 

 the power seemed, almost without exception, to be 



TEANS. KKT. SOC. LOND. 189G. PART II. (jDNE.) 10 



