Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/101

 GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS

as the male remains quiet with wings upraised though he bas ceased to play (Fig. 39). We must suspect, then, that in this case the female has been attracted to the male rather by his confectionery offering than by his music. The purpose of the latter, tJaerefore, would appear to be to advertise to the female the whereabouts of the male, who she knows has sweets to offer; or if the liquid is sour or bitter it is all the same--the female likes it and comes after it. If, now, this luring of the female sometimes ends in marriage, we may see here the real reason for the male's possessing his mus'ic-making organs and his instinct to play them so continuouslv. A male cricket with h[s front wings raised, seen from above and behind as he might look to a female, is shown in Figure 4 o. The basin (B) on his back is a deep cavity on the dorsal plate of the third thoracic segment. A pair of large branching glands (,Fig. 4, GI) within the body open just inside the rear lip of the basin, and these glands fur- nish the liquid that the female obtains. There is another kind of tree cricket belonging to an- other genus, Neoxabia, called the two-spotted tree cricket, N. bipunctata, on accourir of two pairs of dark spots on the wings of the female. This cricket is larger than any of the species of Oecanthus and is of a pinkish brown color. It is widely distributed over the eastern hall of the United States, but is comparatively rare and seldom met with. Allard savs its notes are low, deep, mellow trills con- tinued for" a few seconds and separated by short intervals, as are the notes of the narrow-winged Oecanmus, but that their tone more resembles that of the broad-winged.

THE BUSH CRICKETS The bush crickets differ from the other crickets in having the middle joint in the foot larger and shaped more like the thirdjoint in the foot ofa katydid (Fig. 7 B). Among the bush crickets there is one notable singer common in the neighborhood of Washington. This is the jumping bush [691

INSECTS