Vol. XXli] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 20. 



The writer arrived at Mr. Howard's farm on Fort Hill in 

 the afternoon of August 29, 1910. At this time the nights had 

 become very cool, damp and autumn-like. Light frosts were 

 expected in low grounds in some localities. As far as the eye 

 could see across the hills, the fields were a fresh, alluring emer- 

 ald green. Hosts of stridulating creatures were active by day 

 and by night, producing a chorus of soothing sounds and har- 

 monies. 



In the clover fields and in the weeds by the roadsides were 

 small colonies of Orchelimum vulgare Harris. The notes of 

 this locust are rather soft, and are delivered in a leisurely man- 

 ner, tsip-tsip-tsip-tseeeeeeeeeeeeeee. This locust is a late sum- 

 mer species and stridulates persistently by night as well as by 

 day. At night, especially if the weather is chilly, its notes are 

 not as brisk and as persistent as the day notes. Scudder says 

 of its notes : "The night song differs from that of the day 

 simply in its slower movement : the pitch of both is at B flat, 

 two octaves above middle C." 



Late in the evening and well into the night Conoccphalus 

 cnsiger Harris, adds to the noisy chorus of insect sounds. This 

 locust prefers the fresh herbage of cultivated fields, and is es- 

 pecially to be looked for in the fields of corn. One oftentimes 

 finds a noisy singer verched 6 or 7 feet from the ground on a 

 corn stalk or tassel. 



The call notes of this Conocephalus are intermittent and fol- 

 low each other rather briskly, tsip-tsip-tsip-tsip. These stridu- 

 lations are continued indefinitely, and, to the writer's ears, lack 

 any decided harshness or buzzing characteristic of C. bruneri 

 and others. They are rather soft and lisping, recalling to mind 

 the staccato Hsds of an Orchelimum. C. ensiger is the only 

 species with which the writer has become acquainted in this 

 region It is a very common species in nearly all upland lo- 

 calities. One sometimes meets with it in large colonies among 

 the luxuriant weeds and grasses in lowlands. 



McNeill says of this Conocephalus: "Its song is a loud 

 rasping zip-zip-zip repeated indefinitely." He also states that 



