Cockroaches, Locusts, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 151 
syllables, and Scudder, an experienced student of the Orthoptera, says that 
the note, which sounds like xr, has a shocking lack of melody, adding that 
the poets who have sung its praises must have heard 
it at the distance that lends enchantment. The sounds 
are made by the males exclusively, and result from 
the rubbing together of the bases of the wing-covers, 
which have the veins and membrane specially modified 
for this purpose (see Fig. 201). Concavus lays, in the 
autumn, flattened dark slate-colored eggs, about J inch 
long and one-third as wide, in two rows along a twig, 
the eggs overlapping a little. These eggs hatch in the 
following spring, and the young, like the adults, feed Fig ; 201 —Cyrtophyl- 
* lus concavus sj3« 
on the foliage of the tree. 
The oblong l'eaf-winged and round-winged katydids belong to the genus 
Amblycorypha, and they can be readily recognized by the broad, oblong, 
and rounded wing-covers, and the strongly curved ovipositor of the female, 
with serrated tip. They are grass-green and have the wings longer than 
the wing-covers. The oblong leaf-winged species, A. oblongifolia (Fig. 202), 
is 2 inches long to tips of folded 
wings, while the round - winged 
species, A. rotundijolia , is ij in¬ 
ches or less in length. These 
katydids prefer bushes and tall 
weeds or even grass-clumps to 
tree-tops. Oblongijolia is said by 
McNeill to make a “ quick shuf¬ 
fling sound which resembles 
‘ katy ’ or ‘ katydid ’ very slight¬ 
ly,” while the song of rotun¬ 
dijolia is said by Scudder to be 
made both day and night without variation and to consist of two to four 
notes, sounding like chic-a-chee , run together and repeated generally once 
in about five seconds for an indefinite length of time. 
Fig. 203. —Angular-winged katydid, Microcentrum laurijolium, male. 
(After Riley; natural size.) 
The angular-winged katydids, genus Microcentrum, are large, numerous, 
Fig. 202. —The oblong leaf-winged katydid, 
Amblycorypha oblongifolia, female. (After 
Lugger; natural size.) 
