KATYDIDS INJURIOUS TO ORANGES IN CALIFORNIA. 15 
FOOD PLANTS. 
In the San Joaquin Valley orange section the angular-winged 
katydid, like the forked-tailed katydid, confines itself all but exclu- 
sively to orange trees. Its eggs have been found a few times upon 
an undetermined native weed, the latter always growing near orange 
trees. Adults have been found upon grapevines adjoining an orange 
grove, and males have repeatedly been heard loudly stridulating 
in large pepper trees (Schinus molle) about Lindsay, Cal. According 
to Riley 1 an allied species, Microcentrum retinerve (Burm.), feeds upon 
a great variety of foliage, including oak, apple, and cherry. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
The angular-winged katydid has apparently about as wide a range 
as Scudderia furcata, having been reported from the New England 
States, Florida, and California. It occurs throughout the central 
California citrus belt with the fork-tailed katydid, though it is not so 
often found because less numerous. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
The Egg. 
The egg (PL IV, fig. 1) may be described as follows: Length, 5.18 
mm.; breadth, 2.47 mm.; thickness when first deposited, 0.5 mm.; 
thickness just before hatching, 2.2 mm. Color light grayish brown; 
elongate ovoid, flat to almost cylindrical laterally, depending upon 
the degree of development. 
The eggs are glued in double rows along the sides of twigs from 
one-eighth to one-fourth inch in diameter. These selected twigs 
may be inside the leaf shelter of the tree or on the exterior. There 
may be from 3 to 28 or more eggs in a batch, each egg overlapping 
the one above it. The two rows always occur if more than one egg is 
deposited, each egg of one row alternating with an egg in the other 
row. The larger egg groups of this insect, composed of 24 or more 
eggs, each about one-fifth inch long, are decidedly conspicuous. 
INCUBATION PERIOD. 
The average duration of the egg stage is about 225 days. Eggs 
deposited the last of September hatch in about 228 days, while those 
deposited about the middle of October hatch in approximately 212 
days. The time required for incubation thus depends upon the 
time of season deposited, the period of hatching being shorter than 
the period of deposition. Eggs laid from September 20 to Septem- 
ber 30 hatched from May 10 to 15, while those deposited between 
October 20 and 30 hatched from May 15 to 20. 
i Op. cit., p. 15.5-161. 
