THE GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS 



as the male remains quiet with wings upraised though he 

 has ceased to play (Fig. 39). We must suspect, then, that 

 in this case the female has been attracted to the male 

 rather by his confectionery offering than by his music. 

 The purpose of the latter, therefore, would appear to be to 

 advertise to the female the whereabouts of the male, who 

 she knows has sweets to offer; or if the liquid is sour or 

 bitter it is all the same — the female likes it and comes 

 after it. If, now, this luring of the female sometimes ends 

 in marriage, we may see here the real reason for the male's 

 possessing his music-making organs and his instinct to 

 play them so continuously. 



A male cricket with his front wings raised, seen from 

 above and behind as he might look to a female, is shown in 

 Figure 40. The basin (B) on his back is a deep cavity on 

 the dorsal plate of the third thoracic segment. A pair of 

 large branching glands (Fig. 41, Gl) within the body open 

 just inside the rear lip of the basin, and these glands fur- 

 nish the liquid that the female obtains. 



There is another kind of tree cricket belonging to an- 

 other genus, Neoxabia, called the two-spotted tree cricket, 

 N. bipmictata, on account of two pairs of dark spots on the 

 wings of the female. This cricket is larger than any of the 

 species of Oecanthus and is of a pinkish brown color. It is 

 widely distributed over the eastern half of the United 

 States, but is comparatively rare and seldom met with. 

 Allard says its notes are low, deep, mellow trills con- 

 tinued tor a few seconds and separated by short intervals, 

 as are the notes of the narrow-winged Oecanthus, but that 

 their tone more resembles that of the broad-winged. 



THE BUSH CRICKETS 



The bush crickets differ from the other crickets in having 

 the middle joint in the foot larger and shaped more like the 

 third joint in the foot of a katydid (Fig. 17 B). Among the 

 bush crickets there is one notable singer common in the 

 neighborhood of Washington. This is the jumping bush 



[69] 



