MUSICIANS 267 



song is quite remarkable. One kind, Sunobothrus 

 curtifennis, produces about six notes per second, 

 and continues them from one and a half to two and 

 a half seconds ; another, S. melanofleurus, makes 

 from nine to twelve notes in about three seconds. 

 In both cases the notes follow each other uniformly, 

 and are slower in the shade than in the sun." 



These, as in all the Grasshoppers (Acridiidce), 

 produce their sounds by scraping the hind leg 

 over the projecting nervures of the wing-covers. 

 Harris, another American naturalist, told us long 

 ago how this is accomplished : the male, he says, 

 " bends the shank of the hind leg beneath the thigh, 

 where it is lodged in a furrow designed to receive 

 it, and then draws the leg briskly up and down. 

 He does not play both fiddles together, but altern- 

 ately, first upon one and then on the other." 



In the South African species of this family — 

 Pneumora scutellaris — there is an extraordinary 

 development of the hind body of the male, and the 

 wing-covers are not used in sound-production. 

 The hind body is inflated with air so as to become 

 a great pellucid bladder, in order to increase the 

 resonance of the sounds the insect makes by scraping 

 the comparatively small hind legs over a series of 

 ridges which are placed on each side of the inflated 

 abdomen. At night these insects make a wonderful 

 noise, according to Mr. Trimen. 



Another extraordinary example from South Africa 

 is Methone anderssoni^ which is wingless in both 

 sexes, and does not use its leaping legs for leaping. 



