The Long-Horned Grasshoppers 



rous. The commoner forms have been called the meadow 

 grasshoppers. They are the long, slender, delicate species found 

 on grass and low-growing plants. A common representative 

 of this group is Orchelimum milgare. Others are known as the 

 katydids from the resemblance of the male call to the word 

 "katydid," while others somewhat resemble crickets and are 

 found under stones and rubbish in the woods and in caves. 

 The so-called western crickets (Anabrus purpurascens and A. 

 simplex) belong to this group, as also do the ferocious looking 

 creatures of the genus Stenopelmatus, found in the arid regions 

 of the West and which are erroneously considered as poisonous. 

 The long-horned grasshoppers, or green grasshoppers, are 

 among the most musical of our orthopterous insects. Everyone 

 knows the call of the katydid, and everyone knows Holmes' 

 beautiful poem about this interesting creature. Our commonest 

 katydids ordinarily call "Katy," or say "She did," rather than 

 "Katydid." That is to say, they rasp their fore wings twice 

 oftener than three times. "These two notes," says Scudder, 

 "are of equal (and extraordinary) emphasis, the latter about one- 

 quarter longer than the former; or, if three notes are given, the 

 first and second are alike, and a little shorter than the last. The 

 notes are repeated at the rate of two hundred per minute, and 

 while the interval between two series of notes varies to a certain 

 degree, it is seldom greater than two and one-third seconds or 

 less than a second and a quarter." This is Mr. Scudder's attempt 

 to reduce this note to a scale : 



XT! XT! xr! xr! XT! 



" " " ' 



Fig. 225. Song note of Cyrtophyllum concavum. (After Scudder ) 



It is a noticeable thing with these insects that the day note 

 differs from the night note, and, unlike the katydids, one of the 

 long-horned grasshoppers, known as Scudderia curvicauda, is 

 noisier by night than by day. The day tune is played only in the 

 sunshine, and the night tune after dark or in cloudy weather. 

 Scudder was once watching one of these little creatures in the 

 sunshine. " As a cloud passed over the sun he suddenly changed 

 his note to one with which I was already familiar but without 

 knowing to what insect it belonged. At the same time all the 



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