1911] Spermatophores of Crickets 65 



the handle and is continued as a dorsal thickening of the handle 

 into the narrow cylindrical attachment between the handle and 

 the bulb. It is in fact a duct, whose cavity can be traced from a 

 point some distance inside the bulb (Fig. 2, D) to its outlet at 

 the end of the whip. 



This was proven by embedding the tiny structure in paraffin 

 and taking microtome sections of it (Fig. 3 and 4), from the far- 

 ther end of the handle to almost the tip of the thread. The 

 outside wall is rather gelatinous and soft, but a cylindrical, 

 central core (Figs. 3 and 4, B) of very hard, apparently chiti- 

 nous, material has the tiny duct in its center (Figs. 3 and 4. C) 

 and in the sections this duct had not been flattened in the least. 

 The very firm walls are no doubt for the purpose of preventing 

 flattening or deformation, which might compress the duct 

 and prevent the passage of the spermatozoa. . 



Last summer I again had opportunity to witness the courting 

 and mating of Oecanthis fasciatus, and the process was very 

 much the same as described by the writer in the Canadian 

 Entomologist, Jan., '09. Then, however, I had missed the 

 transfer of the spermatophore and after killing this female I 

 removed the organ and mounted it in the usual way under a 

 cover glass in canada balsam. Watching it under low power 

 of the microscope I succeeded by judicious pressure, in causing 

 the spermatozoa to flow out of the end of the "thread. " This 

 was final proof that this part of the organ is for conducting the 

 spermatozoa to the spermatheea. Lespes in his account, some- 

 how seems to have overlooked the fact that this thread-like 

 structure is a duct, likely due to the minuteness of the duct 

 itself, which when highly magnified, reminds one of a fine 

 capillary tube. He calls it a horny thread, "file corne. " In 

 fact he does not attempt to explain the structure at all, nor how 

 the spermatozoa enter the vagina of the female from the sper- 

 matophore after it has been placed in position. 



As before mentioned, the various species of crickets are very 

 difficult to determine and the 1 spermatophores may in the future 

 be of considerable importance for definitely defining the species. 

 For instance, Minnesota specimens of Gryllus pennsylvanicus 

 Burm. vary considerably in general coloration and size from the 

 Eastern specimens, but the spermatophores examined were all 

 exactly alike. Lespes described and figured the respective 

 spermatophores of the common European species, Gryllus 



