THE GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS 



by the female. In fact the liquid is so attractive to her 

 that, at least in a cage, she is sometimes so persistent in her 

 efforts to obtain it that the male is clearly annoyed and 

 tries to avoid her. One male was observed to say very 

 distinctly by his actions, as he repeatedly tried to escape 

 the nibbling of a female, presumably his wife since she was 

 taken with him when captured, "I do wish you would quit 

 pestering me and let me sing!" Here is another piece of 

 evidence suggesting that the male cricket sings to express 

 his own emotions, whatever they may be, and not pri- 

 marily to attract the female. But if, as in the case of the 

 tree crickets, his music 

 tells the female where 

 she may find her favorite 

 confection, and this in 

 turn leads to matrimony, 

 when the male is in the 

 proper mood, it suggests 

 a practical use and a rea- 

 son for the stridulating 

 apparatus and the song 

 of the male insect. 



Walking-Sticks and 

 Leaf Insects 



Talent often seems to 

 run in families, or in re- 

 lated families, but it does 

 not necessarily express it- 

 self in the same way. If 

 the katydids and crickets 

 are noted musicians, 

 some of their relatives, 

 belonging to the family 

 Phasmidae, are incomparable mimics. Their mimicry, 

 however, is not a conscious imitation, but is one bred in 

 their bodily forms through a long line of ancestors. 



[7i] 



Fig. 43. The common walking-stick in- 

 sect, Diapheromera femorata t of the eastern 

 part of the United States. (Length i]/ 2 

 inches) 



