THE GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS 





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Fig. 30. The hand- 

 somt meadow grass- 

 hopper, Orchelimum 



laticauda 



Upper figure, a male; 



lower, a female 



lable repeated many times. These two 

 elements, the zip and zee, are charac- 

 teristic of the songs of all the Orcheli- 

 mums, some giving more stress to the 

 first and others to the second, and 



the wings is marked by a brown 

 spot at each corner. These little 

 grasshoppers readily sing in con- 

 finement, both in the day and at 

 night. Their music is very unpre- 

 tentious and might easily be lost 

 out of doors, consisting mostly of a 

 soft, rustling buzz that lasts two or 

 three seconds. Often the buzz is 

 preceded or followed by a series of 

 clicks made by a slower movement 

 of the wings. Frequently the 

 player opens the wings for the 

 start of the song with a single click, 

 then proceeds with the buzz, and 

 finally closes with a few slow 

 movements that produce the con- 

 cluding series of clicks. But very 

 commonly he gives only the buzz 

 without prelude 

 or staccato end- 

 ing. 



Another com- 

 mon member of 

 the genus is the 

 agile meadow 

 grasshopper, Or- 

 chelimum agile. 

 Its music is said 

 to be a long zip, 

 zip, zip, zee-e-e-e, 

 with the zip syl- 



Fig. 31. The slender 

 meadow grasshopper, 

 Conocephalus fasciatus, 

 one of the smallest 

 members of the katy- 

 did family 



53 



