Courtship of certain European Acridiidse. 243 



attention she made no apparent movement, and the other 

 male did not make any farther advances. The active 

 male then walked away and met another female, 

 stridulated beside hei- until she also walked off. Another 

 male close at hand stridulated, and the active one 

 immediately replied, akhough in this case no female was 

 near. 



These observations illustrate the habits of the species 

 in courtship, the males, as Mr. F. V. Dickins also pointed 

 out to me, always running after the females and never 

 jumping, although both sexes jump very actively when 

 disturbed. The use of stridulation as one of the tactics 

 of courtship was clearly seen, the rivalry between the 

 two males near the female being particularly interesting. 

 The same occasion gave rise to the other method of 

 courtship, viz., patting the female. The position of the 

 male's antennas suggested attention to any movement the 

 i'emale might make, or to anything she might do. 



These notes also illustrate the immense abundance of 

 the species, the active male had only to walk two or three 

 inches away from the group of three in order to come 

 across another female and male. 



I think that, in observations of this kind, it will be 

 useful to watch the species under many different conditions, 

 especially as regards temperatuie. In the hottest places 

 courtship is most energetic, and we have the most 

 favourable opportunity for seeing the whole process 

 carried through to completion, as in the case of 

 Fezotettix already described ; but when the temperature 

 is lower, and especially when the warmth of the sun has 

 only just roused the insects into activity, many interest- 

 ing details may be witnessed which are often passed over 

 or hurried through in times of greater energy. 



In spite of the excessive abundance cf the species and 

 the almost constant attention of the males to the females, 

 a successful termination to courtship was witnessed in no 

 single instance, and only two or three pairs were seen in 

 coitu. One of these was found on August 29th, a little 

 below rhe hotel. The male, unlike the Fezotettix, was 

 unable to retain his hold, and when the female jumped, 

 as she did freely, he was dragged along on his back, and 

 retained this position for a considerable time in the 

 intervals between two successive jumps. It is probable 

 that with this species, the pairing season was nearly over j; 



