white] THE KATYDID 259 



superstition connected with them? I have always heard that the 

 Katydid was a herald of frost and that eight weeks from the time 

 the first one is heard a frost may be expected in that particular 

 region. Whether this be true or not I do not know, but as the 

 Katydid does not appear until late summer and frosts come about 

 the first of October there is not much ground for dispute. 



One day last summer I saw one of these pretty pea green crea- 

 tures. We were seated in a screened in porch when "thump" 

 "zit" there on the screen sat one of these fiddlers. He had been 

 attracted by the porch light of course and was quite unaware of 

 my presence. Then the obliging creature, what did he do but start 

 to fiddle! At such close range I should have been able to distin- 

 guish how he did it but all I could see was that he rubbed his 

 upper wings together and made a rasping noise which I should 

 call anything but beautiful. I cannot help agreeing with Mr. 

 Scudder that the poets who sing its praises must have heard it at 

 the distance that lends enchantment. 



Notwithstanding its song the Katydid is a beautiful insect. 

 To me it seems like an overgrown green grasshopper to which it is 

 a cousin. It has two long legs to jump with and four shorter ones 

 for clasping. The tarsi are four-jointed. The antennae longer 

 than body are very slender and graceful. 

 The oviposter is sword-shaped and often 

 saw-like. The over wings or wing covers 

 are stiff er than the under lace-like ones 

 but the latter are longer so that they 

 protrude beyond the upper ones. Mar- The front portions of the wings 



garet W. Morlev compares the wings to °f a male katydid showing 



rile on one wing and scraper 

 skirts of bygone starched and stately on the other. 



dames, and yet the owner can fly through 



the air in a most pretty and ladylike fashion. The wing-covers, as 



may be supposed, furnish the instrument of music. On the right 



one may be found a more or less triangular area of membrane, and 



a very tiny scraper. On the left wing is a small file and a similar 



membrane. To make a noise the scraper on the right wing-cover 



is rubbed against the file on the left and so we get the rasping 



sound spoken of by Riley. 



"The katydid is rasping at 

 The silence from the tangled broom." 



