Courtship of certain European AcridiidK. 241 



ing, as the male finally left liei" of his own accord. This 

 observation was made by both of us, and was of g'reat 

 interest. When we first saw them, the male was firmly 

 holding the female, but she kept struggling violently, 

 and trying to kick him ofi" with her powerful third legs. 

 On at least three separate occasions the pair rolled over, 

 and remained in this position, with the male beneath, 

 for about half a minute. At such times the female was 

 unable to struggle at all successfullj^, and. it seemed 

 possible that the male, when he was nearly unseated, 

 caused the pair to roll over ; we could not, however, bo 

 sure of this. Ultimately the male leaped off voluntarily, 

 as I have already stated. One side of the dorsal surface 

 of an abdominal segment was wounded in the female, but 

 as the injury did not appear to be fresh, it is not probable 

 that the male caused it. 



In one or two cases the female, and once the male, 

 expelled faeces just before or during copulation. The 

 faeces were of the character already described, and not in 

 the usual dry state. 



In no single case was any pi^eliminary courtship wit- 

 nessed in this species. There was no stridulation, no 

 display of colour or attitude. It was entirely a question 

 of capture, the females being almost invariably, at any 

 rate at first, unwilling prisoners, although occasionally 

 they showed indications of excitement in the presence of 

 a male. 



It is highly probable that pairing takes place many 

 times in this species, and even more than once with the 

 same male. 



There was an extremely high proportion of individuals 

 in coitu, even allowing for the fact that their habit of 

 freely jumping about renders them much more con- 

 spicuous than the unpaired males and females. The 

 proportion was far higher than that of any other 

 Orthopterous insect observed during this visit to Switzer- 

 land ; it is possible, however, that the principal pairing 

 time of other species is earlier in the year. 



GOMPHOCERUS SIBERICUS (var.). 



This form was excessively abundant round the W^eisshorn 

 Hotel, no other species approaching it in numbers. On 

 one occasion, after heavy rain, F. Jenkinsou saw immense 



