THE DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 37 1 



In the shade the rate falls to forty-three in fifteen seconds, the num- 

 ber of notes remaining the same. 



The femur is evidently scraped gently upon the elytron to produce the 

 sound, for frequently, at the commencement, two or three noiseless move- 

 ments are made, the leg failing to touch the wing-cover. I once found 

 three males singing to a single female, who was busily engaged laying 

 eggs in a stick of wood, her abdomen plunged into a hole she had bored 

 to the depth of half an inch ; two of the males were near enough each 

 other to cross antennae. 



Mr. S. I. Smith gives an interesting account of the habits of this 

 species in the Proceedings of the Portland (Me.) Society of Natural 

 History. 



The eggs are deposited in old logs, in the under sides of boards, or in any soft 

 wood lying among the grass which these insects inhabit. By means of the anal 

 appendages, the female excavates in the wood a smooth, round hole, about an eighth of 

 an inch in diameter. This hole is almost perpendicular at first, but is turned rapidly 

 off in the direction of the grain of the wood, and runs nearly parallel with, and about 

 three eighths of an inch from, the surface, — the whole length of the hole being an 

 inch or an inch and a fourth. A single hole noticed in the .end of a log was straight. 

 The eggs, which are about a fourth of an inch in length, quite slender, and light 

 brownish yellow, are placed in two rows, one on each side, and inclined so that, 

 beginning at the end of the hole, each egg overlies the next in the same row by about 

 half its length. The aperture is closed by a little disk of a hard, gummy substance. 

 I have seen many of the females engaged in excavating the holes, and they always 

 stood with the body in the direction of the grain of the wood, and apparently did not 

 change their position during the operation. When one was just beginning a hole, it 

 was very easy to see the upper appendages rise and open, and each tune scrape away a 

 little of the wood. During this operation a frothy fluid is emitted from some part of 

 the abdomen, but whether it serves to soften the wood, or to lubricate the appendages 

 and the sides of the hole, I did not determine. There were always great numbers of 

 half finished holes, or those just begun, and comparatively very few that were com- 

 pleted ; and I have often found upon the under side of boards great numbers of the 

 holes just begun, none of them being more than an eighth of an inch in depth. Per- 

 haps the reason for so few holes being finished is, that the wood proves too hard, and 

 the insect tries for a softer place, or, many of them may be disturbed during the oper- 

 ation. When they had opened the hole only to a slight depth, they leaped away if 

 disturbed ; but when the abdomen was quite a distance into the nearly completed hole, 

 they seldom attempted to withdraw it even after the hand was upon them. 



I have also noticed that this insect is not easily suited in choosing the 



