THE GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS 



The song of ensiger sounds like the noise of a miniature 

 sewing machine, consisting merely of a long series of one 

 note, tick, tick, tick, tick, etc., repeated indefinitely. 

 Scudder says ensiger begins with a note like brw, then 

 pauses an instant and immediately 

 emits a rapid succession of sounds 

 like chwi at the rate of about five 

 per second and continues them an 

 unlimited time. McNeil repre- 

 sents the notes as zip, zip, zip; 

 Davis expresses them as ik, ik, ik; 

 and Allard hears them as tsip, tsip, 

 tsip. The song of retusus (Fig. 27) 

 is quite different. It consists of a 

 long shrill whir which Rehn and 

 Hebard describe as a continuous 

 zeeeeeeeeee. The sound is not loud 

 but is in a very high key and rises 

 in pitch as the player gains speed 

 in his wing movements, till to some 

 human ears it becomes almost in- 

 audible, though to others it is a 

 plain and distinct screech. 



A large conehead and one with 

 a much stronger instrument is the 

 robust conehead, Neoconocephalus 

 robustus (Fig. 28). He is one of 

 the loudest singers of North 

 American Orthoptera, his song 

 being an intense, continuous buzz, 

 somewhat resembling that of a 



Cicada. A Caged Specimen Singing fore wings separated and 



in a room makes a deafening noise. somewhat . elevated - the head 



o downward 



The principal buzzing sound is ac- 

 companied by a lower, droning hum, the origin of which 

 is nor clear, but which is probably some secondary vibra- 

 tion of the wings. The player always sits head downward 



Fig. 28. The robust cone- 

 head, Neoconocephalus robus- 

 tus, in position of singing, with 



?1 



