90 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



Scudder, who has given much attention to the subject 

 of Orthopteran music, says in North America " the 

 uniformity with which each species of Stenobothrus 

 plays its own song is quite remarkable." One species, 

 S. curtipennis, makes about six notes per second, and 

 continues them for one and a half to two and a half 

 seconds ; another, ,5*. melanopleurus, produces from nine 

 to twelve notes in about three seconds. In both cases 

 the notes follow each other uniformly, and the move- 

 ments are less rapid in the shade than in the sun. 

 Scudder has even reduced the notes of several species 

 to a written music. 



This stridulation of grasshoppers is specially charac- 

 teristic of the male. Yet it is not always an attribute 

 with them of the male only. It was for long supposed 

 that the males alone sang, that they alone were endowed 

 with the musical apparatus. Females were indeed per- 

 ceived rubbing their thighs and wing-covers together, 

 but as they appeared to be destitute of instruments, 

 and as no sound resulted from their efforts, it was con- 

 cluded that these were merely imitative. It is, however, 

 discovered that musical organs do exist in the females 

 of various species of Stenobothrus. Doubtless they 

 are rudimentary as compared with those of the males, 

 but they are believed to be really phonetic, although 

 the appropriate movement produces no sound per- 

 ceptible to our ears. 



