Courtship of certain Huropean Acridiidee. 239 
female by its movement, and they then leap with the 
greatest accuracy [. Jenkinson obtained these results 
by inducing captured females to leap from his hand in 
the direction of a male. On one occasion he saw a male 
approach and Jeap upon another male, probably mistaking 
it for a female ; there was a tussle, in which one appeared 
to try to bite the other. It thus appeared evident that 
there is no preliminary courtship of any kind, but that 
the male takes the female by surprise, and leaps upon her 
before she is aware of his presence. ‘This conclusion was 
abundantly confirmed Jater on. 
SepremBeR 3.—F’. Jenkinson and I observed a pair on 
the grassy slopes below the Bella Tola. The male had 
lost one of the legs of the third pair, and the female had 
one of them apparently injured. The male was seated on 
the back of the female, and was energetically attempting 
to copulate much too far forward in the middle ventral line. 
We watched his continual attempts for about fifteen 
mivutes, at the end of which period he was no nearer to 
success than at the beginning. This failure, when the 
female was evidently ready, and kept opening the gene- 
rative orifice, may have been due to the absence of the 
lee. Although this limb is not used to hold firmly, the 
absence of it may have affected his balance. At any 
rate no failure of this kind was seen on any other 
occasion. 
Later on, about the middle of the day, we came toa 
flat piece of ground covered with scanty grass, at the 
bottom of the zigzags by which the Bella Tola is ascended. 
The strong sun and the position of the ground made the 
place extremely hot, and as both sexes of the Pezotettix 
were very abundant, it appeared a good opportunity for 
observing the pairing habits. The males were often 
seated on stones, or other slight eminences; thus placed, 
and with the head and anterior part of the body raised, 
they were in a very favourable position to see and leap 
upon any female which approached within three inches, 
or sometimes even a greater distance. If the leap isa 
failure, the male at once begins an active pursuit, leap- 
ing more quickly and further than the female. In this 
way it often happens that he loses sight of the latter, or, 
is brought nearer to another female, whom he at once 
attempts to capture. One main cause of failure in the 
‘pursuit is that the male has very little, if any, power of 
