440 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



with a brownish color. But on their antennae most species bear dis- 

 tinctive marks (fig. 24) by which they may be easily identified. The 

 snowj' cricket, for example, has a single oval spot of black on the 

 under side of each of the two basal antennal joints (fig. 24, C). An- 

 other, the narrow- winged tree cricket, has a spot on the second joint 

 and a black J on the first (A, B). A third, the four-spotted cricket 

 (D), has a dash and dot side by side on each joint- A fourth, the 

 black-horned or striped tree cricket (E), has two spots on each joint 

 more or less run together, or sometimes has the whole base of the 

 antenna blackish, while the color may also spread over the fore 

 parts of the body and, on some individuals, form stripes along the 

 back. A fifth species, the broad- winged (F), has no marks on the 

 antenna), which are uniformly brownish. 



The narrow-winged tree cricket is almost every where associated 

 with the snowy, but its notes are very easily distinguished. They con- 



Fig. 24. — Marks on two basal segments of antennae distinguishing different species of 



tree crickets 

 A, B, Oencanthus angustipennis. C, nireus. D, quadripunctatus. E, nigrieornis. F, 

 latipennis. 



sist of slower, purring sounds usually prolonged about two seconds 

 and separated by intervals of the same length, but as fall approaches 

 they become slower and longer. Always they are sad in tone and 

 sound far off. 



The three other common tree crickets, the black-horned or striped 

 cricket, Oecanthus nigrieornis, the four spotted, 0. nigrieornis quad- 

 ripunctatus, and the broad-winged, O. latipennis, are all trillers; 

 that is, their music consists of a long, shrill whirr kept up indefi- 

 nitely. Of these the broad-winged cricket makes the loudest sound 

 and the one predominant near Washington. The black-horned is 

 the common triller farther north, and is particularly a daylight 

 singer. In Connecticut his shrill note rings everywhere along the 

 roadsides on warm bright afternoons of September and October as 

 the player sits on leaf or twig fully exposed to the sun. At this 

 season also both the snowy and the narrow-winged sing by day, but 

 usually later in the afternoon and generally from more concealed 

 places. 



