Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/100



Flç. #o. A male of the broad- winged tree crlcket, Oecanthu latipennis, with wings elevated in position ofsinging, seen from above and behind, showing the basin (B) on bis back into which the liquid is exuded that attracts the female

O. nigricornis quadripunctatus, and the broad-winged, O. lati- permis, are all trillers; that is, their music consists of a long, shrill whir kept up indefinitely. Of these the broad-winged cricket makes the loudest sound and the one predominant near Washing- ton. The black-horned is the common triller farther north, and is particularly a daylight singer. In Connecticut his shrill note rings everywhere along the road- sides, on warm bright afternoons of September and October, as the player sits on leaf or twig fully exposed to the sun. At this season also, both the snowy and the narrow-winged sing by day but usually later in the after-

noon and generally from more concealed places. We should naturally like to know why these little creatures are such persistent singers and of what use their music is to them. Do the males t really sing to charm and attract the females as is usually pre- sumed? We do not know; but sometimes when a male is sing- ing, a female approaches him flore behind, noses about on his back, and soon finds there a d.eep basinlike cavity situated just Fc.. 41. The back of the behind the bases of the elevated third thoracic segment of the wings. This basin contains a broad-winged tree cricket, with its basin (B) that receives clear liquid which the female secretionfromtheglands(GI) proceeds fo lap up very eagerly, inside the body

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