260 NA T U RE-STUD Y RE VIE W [16 :6— Sept. , 1920 



and Elizabeth Akers, 



"The Katydid with its rasping dry. 

 Made forever the same reply 

 Which laughing voices would still deny." 



Some people call the Katydid music love songs, and maybe 



they are. Why shouldn't a Katydid sing of such things as well as 



anybody else, only — well, I wish he had had his voice trained a 



little, don't you? You may hear these calls from 



dusk to morning from misdimimer till frost ; and 



not only you, but katydids can enjoy them also. 



They have ears on their forelegs. At the base of 



each fore tibia there is a thin place in the chitin- 



F 1 1 f k t ^^^^ body wall (the tympaniim) and a resonance 



did, showing ear chamber inside with a special arrangement of 



near elbow. ^^^^g ^^^ ganglia. 



Comstock s Manual. ■,' -, - . - - . 



The katydids are very shy and with their pro- 

 tective coloring are nbt often seen. They seldom if ever sing in 

 the daytime and only the males can sing. As a rule they live 

 high up in dense forests and feed upon leaves and twigs often 

 doing much damage but not as serious as that done by the grass- 

 hoppers, since they live singly or in pairs and never come in 

 swarms. 



The female lays her eggs above ground generally, according to 

 the species. Some typical katydids deposit eggs on twigs of trees, 

 the eggs being fiat, oval and greyish brown (5.5 x 3 mm.). The 

 angular- winged katydid described by Dr. C. V. Riley deposited 

 her eggs on a twig. "Selecting a twig about the size of a common 

 goose quill this provident mother prepares it for the reception of 

 her eggs by biting and roughening the bark for a distance or two or 

 three inches. This bite is not gradual like that when feeding, but 

 is sudden and vigorous, the insect chewing and pressing the twig 

 each side so as to form an edge. This operation is accompanied 

 by a sudden nervous shake of the body from side to side and lasts 

 sometimes but two or three minutes and sometimes more than ten. 

 Then beginning at the lower end, she slowly curls the abdomen 

 under until the lower edge of th^ curved ovipositor is brought 

 between the jaws and palpi by which it is grasped and guided up 

 and down from six to ten minutes while apparently from the 

 ovipositor there issues a viscid liquid. Finally after a few seconds 

 rest, the egg is deposited on the roughened surface in an oblique 



