INSECTS 



THE CONEHEADS 



This group o{ the katydid family contains slender, 

 grasshopperlike insects that have the forehead produced 



into a large 

 cone and the 

 face strongly 

 receding, but 

 which also pos- 

 sess long, slen- 

 der antennae 

 that distinguish 

 them from the 

 true or short- 

 horn grasshop- 

 pers. They con- 

 stitute the sub- 

 family Copi- 

 phorinae. 



One of the 

 commonest and 

 most widely 

 distributed of 

 the larger cone- 

 heads is the 

 species known as Neoconocephalus ensiger, or the "sword- 

 bearing conehead." It is the female, however, that carries 

 the sword; and it is not a sword either, but merely the 

 immensely long egg-laying instrument properly called the 

 ovipositor. The female conehead shown at B of Figure 27, 

 has a similar organ, though she belongs to a species called 

 retusus. The two species are very similar in all respects 

 except for slight differences in the shape of the cone on the 

 head. They look like slim, sharp-headed grasshoppers, 

 1 X A to \)4, inches in length, usually bright green in color, 

 though sometimes brown. 



l5°] 



Fig. 27. A conehead grasshopper, or katydid, Neocono- 

 cephalus retusus 

 Upper figure, a male; lower, a female, with extremely long 

 ovipositor 



