Vol. xxiii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 461 
In New England, with the appearance of frosty evenings 
in late autumn, the intermittent stridulations of the snowy 
tree cricket Oecanthus niveus DeG. become painfully slow 
and faint as compared with the usually brisk, emphatic stridu- 
lations of this species during hot midsummer nights. Not- 
withstanding this response in the notes of insects to changing 
weather conditions, the characteristic habit of stridulation of 
any species is not sufficiently changed to make its identification 
uncertain. However unfavorable the conditions may be, 
Oecanthus niveus does not forsake its intermittent trilling 
habit, nor does the prolonged trill of Oecanthus latipennis be- 
come interrupted or in any way intermittent. 
Among the species of musical Orthoptera covering a wide 
range of distribution it would be rather anomalous not to find 
in some instances more or less marked local peculiarities of 
stridulation and habit. -Differences in the manner of stridu- 
lation distinguishing groups of the same species have been 
rarely reported. Concerning Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burm., 
one of the commonest and most widely distributed field crick- 
ets in North America, the writer has reported two extremely 
unlike habits of stridulation, differentiating New England 
from the most southern forms.* In New England the note is 
a distinct, intermittent chirp. In the Piedmont region of 
northern Georgia the note is a weak prolonged trill very 
much like the trill of Oecanthus quadripunctatus Beut. The 
writer has likewise noted rather distinct methods of stridula- 
tion for different colonies of Nemobius fasciatus var. vittatus 
DeG. at Oxford, Mass. It is probable that more thorough in- 
vestigation will reveal peculiarities in the stridulations of local 
groups of other species. 
The usual method of stridulation of a species is sometimes 
noticeably changed, apparently at the will of the musician. 
The category of volitional modifications includes changes of 
*“Musical Crickets and Locusts in North Georgia,’ Proceedings of 
the Entomological Society of Washington, Vol. XII, toro. 
T“Some New England Orthopters observed in late October,” in 
Entomological News, Vol. XXI, 1gIo. 
