442 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



and these glands must furnish the bulk of the liquid that the female 



obtains. 



There is another kind of tree cricket belonging to another genus, 



Neoxabia, called the two-spotted tree cricket, N. bipunctata, on ac- 

 count of two pairs of dark spots on the 

 wings of the female. This cricket is 

 larger than any of the species of Oencan- 

 tkus and is of a pinkish-brown color. It 

 is widely distributed over the eastern half 

 of the United States, but is compara- 

 tively rare and seldom met with. Allard 

 says its notes are low, deep, mellow trills 

 continued for a few seconds and separated 

 by short intervals, as are the notes of 

 the narrow-winged Oecanthus, but that 

 their tone more resembles that of the 

 notes of the broad-winged. 



Fig. 26. — A male of the broad- 

 winged tree cricket with 

 wings elevated in position of 

 singing, seen from above and 

 behind, showing the basin 

 (B) on his back into which 

 the liquid is exuded that at- 

 tracts the female 



THE BUSH CRICKETS 



The bush crickets differ from the other 

 crickets in having the middle joint in the 

 foot larger and shaped more like the 

 third joint in the foot of a katydid (fig. 

 4, B). Amongst the bush crickets there 

 is one notable singer very common in the neighborhood of Washing- 

 ton. This is the jumping bush cricket, Orocharis saltatoi\ who comes 

 on the stage late in the season, about the 

 middle of August or shortly after. His 

 notes are loud, clear, piping chirps with 

 a rising inflection toward the end, sug- 

 gestive of the notes of a small tree toad, 

 and they at once strike the listener as 

 something new and different in the insect 

 program. The players, however, are at 

 first very hard to locate, for they do not 

 perform continuously — one note seems to 

 come from here, a second from over there, 

 and a third from a different angle, so that 

 it is almost impossible to place any one of 

 them. But after a week or so the crickets 

 become more numerous and each player more persistent till soon the 

 notes are the predominant sounds in the nightly concerts, standing 

 out loud and clear against the whole tree cricket chorus. As Riley 

 says, this chirp " is so distinctive that when once studied it is never 



Fig. 27. — The back of the third 

 thoracic segment of the 

 broad-winged tree cricket, 

 with its basin (B) that re- 

 ceives the secretion from the 

 glands (01) inside the body 



