KATYDIDS AND THEIR KIN. 



213 



in numbers as do the green grasshoppers, they are but 

 seldom noticed by man. Their love calls or songs, 

 however, make the welkin ring at night from mid- 

 August until after heavy frost, and though but one 

 of the nine species found in the State makes a note 

 in any way resembling the syllables " katy-did, she- 

 did," yet all are accredited with this sound by the 

 casual observer, and hence the common, name usually 

 given to the members of this sub-family. Their call 

 is seldom made by day for the obvious reason that it 

 might attract the attention of the birds and so lead 

 to the destruction of the insect. As twilight 

 approaches, however, the male of each species begins 

 his peculiar note, \vhich is kept up, 

 with little or no intermission, until 

 the approach of day warns him that 

 his feathered enemies will soon be on 

 the alert, and that silence will be, for 

 a time, the best policy to pursue. 



From the other Locustidce the katy- 

 dids differ widely in their habits of 

 oviposition, the eggs not being depos- 

 ited on the earth or in twigs, but are 

 usually glued fast in double row r s to 

 the outer surface of slender twigs or 

 on the edges of leaves. The eggs of 

 the most common species appear like 

 flattened hemp seeds, and usually over- 

 lap one another in the row in which 

 they are placed. On account of this 

 method of oviposition, the ovipositors 

 of the katydids are broader, more curved and more 



Fig. 47 Eggs of 



Angular-winged 



Katydid, 



