426 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



the male has for the female is a liquid exuded on his back, the song 

 apparently being a mere advertisement of his wares. In any case 

 the ecstasies of love and passion ascribed to male insects in con- 

 nection with their music are probably more fanciful than real. The 

 subject is an enchanted field where the scientist has most often 

 weakened and wandered from the narrow path of observed facts, 

 where he has indulged in a freedom of imagination comparable only 

 with that of a newspaper reporter chronicling some event of the 

 daily news. Thus Blatchley, in describing the singing and wooing 

 of the katydids in Indiana, says : 



" One idea alone possessed the minds of the male musicians. That 

 idea was love passion — ' that greatest thing in the universe.' Long 

 and loud the cymbals sounded, each shuffle, each note, doubtless ac- 

 companied by the wish that the next would call from the skies, from 

 the branches above or about them — from anywhere, it mattered not — 

 one of their form and kind." The serenade, he further says, " con- 

 tinued almost unbroken from dark till dawn. A serenade it was in 

 truth — a song of love — of passion, poured out in the listening ears 

 of the other sex. At times a single player dropped out of the 

 chorus. His work, his love calls had not been in vain. From some 

 leafy retreat, where she had been hidden by day, a lady katydid 

 slowly emerged, and, entranced by the song — by, to her ears, the 

 tender wooing notes — drew nearer and nearer unto the charmed cir- 

 cle whence the cymbals clanged and shuffled. Their notes became 

 less vigorous. More softly they fell upon the ear, until finally as 

 she coyly advanced they ceased and the caresses of antenna? took their 

 place." 



The details in this report are too unconvincing and arouse sus- 

 picion that much of the very interesting performance took place 

 in Mr. Blatchley's imagination as he " listened for hours " that 

 August, night in Indiana to the katydids' serenade. We must suspect 

 that the balmy midnight air, a silvery moon perhaps, and the me- 

 lodious " clang and shuffle " of the cymbals also produced effects, 

 and that the next morning there were many things interwoven in 

 the memory of the listener that crept into the pleasing story he re- 

 counts. 



Or also we ma}' read from Riley : " To the mind of the naturalist, 

 trained in deciphering nature's hieroglyphics, the chattering song is 

 very plainly inspired by love. The male katydid doubtless feels 

 something of the same satisfaction in playing to his companions, 

 and especially to Katy, as a prima donna does in singing to an audi- 

 ence. There is a pleasure in the act which is the outcome of its 

 being; and the fact that the males are principally the players shows 

 that the gift is not only a source of pleasure but one of much im- 

 portance to the species; for the rivalry among the males is as great 



