436 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



females happened to run into him while he was playing. If one male 

 was fiddling alone and the other approached him, the first dashed 

 at the intruder with jaws open, increasing the speed of his strokes at 



Fig. 22. — The common black cricket. Oryllus assimilis. A, male with wings raised in 

 attitude of singing. B, female. C, young crickets recently hatched (enlarged three 

 times). D, a female beginning to insert her ovipositor into the ground. E, female 

 with ovipositor buried full length in ground 



the same time till the notes became almost a shrill whistle. The other 

 male usually retaliated by playing too, in an apparent attempt to 

 outfiddle the first. The chirps from both sides now came quicker and 

 quicker, their pitch mounting higher and higher till each player 

 reached his limit. Then both would stop and fcegin over again. 



