Courtship of certain European Acridiide. — 248 
attention she made no apparent movement, and the other 
male did not make any further advances. The active 
male then walked away and met another female, 
stridulated beside her until she also walked off. Another 
male close at hand stridulated, and the active one 
immediately replied, although 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 
tivo 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 antenne suggested attention to any movement the 
female 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 temperature. 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 
Pezotettix 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 of the species and 
the almost constant attention of the males to the females, 
wu successful termination to courtship was witnessed in no 
single instance, and only two or three pairs were seen 1n 
coitu. One of these was found on August 29th, a little» 
below the hotel. The male, unlike the Pezofettix, 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 ; 
