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ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



tick, tick, etc., repeated indefinitely. Scudder says ensiger begins 

 with a note like brw, then pauses an instant and immediately emits 

 a rapid succession of sounds like chwi at the rate of about five per 

 second and continues them an unlimited time. McNeil represents 



the notes as zip, zip, zip; Davis expresses 

 them as ik, ik, ik; and Allard hears them as 

 tsip, tsip, tsip. The song of retusus (fig. 13) 

 is quite different. It consists of a long shrill 

 whirr which Rehn and Hebberd describe as 

 a continuous zeeeeeeeeee. The sound is not 

 loud but is of a very high key, and rises in 

 pitch as the player gains speed in his wing 

 movements, till to some human ears it be- 

 comes almost inaudible, though to others it 

 is a plain and distinct screech. 



A large conehead and one with a much 

 stronger instrument is the robust conehead, 

 Neoconocephalus robustus (fig. 14). He is 

 one of the loudest singers of American Or- 

 thoptera, his song being an intense, continu- 

 ous buzz, somewhat resembling that of a 

 cicada. A caged specimen singing in a 

 room makes a deafening noise. The prin- 

 cipal buzzing sound is accompanied by a 

 lower, droning hum, the origin of which is 

 not clear but which is probably some second- 

 ary vibration of the wings. The player 

 always sits head downward while perform- 

 ing, and the breathing motions of the abdo- 

 men are very deep and rapid. The robust 

 conehead is an inhabitant of dry sandy 

 places along the Atlantic coast from Massa- 

 chusetts to Virginia and, according to 

 Blatchley, of similar places near the shore 

 of Lake Michigan in Indiana. The writer 

 made its acquaintance in Connecticut on the 

 sandy flats of the Quinnepiac Valley, north 

 of New Haven, where its shrill song may be 

 heard on summer nights from long distances. 



Fig. 14. — The robust cone- 

 head, Neoconocephalus ro- 

 bustus, in position of sing- 

 ing, with fore wings sepa- 

 rated and somewhat ele- 

 vated, and head downward 



THE MEADOW GRASSHOPPERS 



These are trim, slim little grasshopperlike insects, active by day, 

 that live in moist meadows where the vegetation is always fresh and 

 juicy. They constitute the subfamily Conocephalinse of the katydid 

 family, having conical heads like the last group, but being mostly 



