THE GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS 



B 



ground, while the katydids ordinarily walk on the three 

 basal segments only, carrying the long terminal joint 

 elevated. The basal segments have pads on their under 

 sides that adhere to any smooth surface such as that of a 

 leaf, but the terminal joint bears a pair of claws used 

 when it is necessary to grasp the edge of a support. The 

 katydids are mostly creatures of the night and, though 

 usually plain green in color, many of them have elegant 

 forms. Their attitudes and general 

 comportment suggest much more re- 

 finement and a higher breeding than 

 that of the heavy-bodied locusts. 

 Though some members of the katydid A 



family live in the fields and are very s ^>- 

 grasshopperlike or even cricketlike ^\>=— ^-^^^^^S) 

 in form and manners, the character- vb$p-f*§C_S 

 istic species are seclusive inhabitants 

 of shrubbery or trees. These are the (\{*r~ 

 true aristocrats of the Orthoptera. 



An insect musician differs in many 

 respects from a human musician, 

 aside from that of being an insect in- 

 stead of a human being. The insect 

 artists are all instrumentalists; but 

 since the poets and other ignorant 

 people always speak of the "singing" 

 of the crickets and katydids, it will be 

 easier to use the language of the public than to correct it, 

 especially since we have nothing better to offer than the 

 word stridulating, a Latin derivative meaning "to creak." 

 But words do not matter if we explain what we mean by 

 them. It must be understood, therefore, that though we 

 speak of the "songs" of insects, insects do not have true 

 voices in the sense that "voice" is the production of sound 

 by the breath playing on vocal cords. All the musical 

 instruments of insects, it is true, are parts of their bodies; 

 but they are to be likened to fiddles or drums, since, for the 



[33] 



H^fc^^^i 



Fig. 17. Distinctive char- 

 acters in the feet of the 

 three families of singing 



Orthoptera 

 A, hind foot of a grass- 

 hopper. B, hind foot of a 

 katydid. C, hind foot of 



a cricket 



