250 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI. 



has a very wide range, some being found from the 

 central parts of the United States down to 32° S. lat., 

 yet each distant region has its tolerably distinct local 

 variety. But the effect of this general wandering habit 

 of the groujD is, in the long run, a wide dissemination of 

 the species ; the formation of local varieties showing 

 that the process is, nevertheless, a slow one. None of 

 the species are found much beyond the tropics, but the 

 genus is well represented within the tropical zone 

 throughout the world ; and an East Indian kind (C. 

 Alcmeone) is so nearly allied to a South American one 

 (C. Statira), as to have been mistaken for it by some 

 authors. 



A strange kind of wood-cricket is found in this 

 neighbourhood. The males produce a very loud and 

 not unmusical noise by rubbing together the overlapping 

 edges of their wing-cases. The notes are certainly the 

 loudest and most extraordinary that I ever heard pro- 

 duced by an orthopterous insect. The natives call it 

 the Tanana, in allusion to its music, which is a sharp, 

 resonant stridulation resembling the syllables ta-na-na, 

 ta-na-na, succeeding each other with little intermission. 

 It seems to be rare in the neighbourhood. When the 

 natives capture one they keep it in a wicker-work cage 

 for the sake of hearing it sing. A friend of mine kept 

 one six days. It was lively only for two or three, and 

 then its loud note could be heard from one end of the 

 village to the other. When it died he gave me the 

 specimen, the only one I was able to procure. It is a 

 member of the family Locustidse, a group intermediate 

 between the Crickets (Achetidae) and the Grasshoppers 



