Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/78

 Between the bases of the antennae on the forehead there is a small conical projection, a physical character which separates the true katydid from the round-headed katydids and assigns him to the subfamily called the Pseudophyllinae, which includes, besides our species, many others that live mostly in the tropics. The rear margins of the wings are evenly rounded and their sides strongly bulged outward as if to cover a very plump body, but the space between them is mostly empty and probably forms a resonance chamber to give tone and volume to the sound produced by the stridulating parts. What might be the katydid's waistcoat, the part of the body exposed beneath the wings, has a row of prominent buttonlike swellings along the middle which rhythmically heave and sink with each respiratory movement. All the katydids are deep abdominal breathers.

The color of the katydid is plain green, with a conspicuous dark-brown triangle on the back covering the stridulating area of the wings. The tips of the mouth parts are vellowish. The eyes are of a pale transparent green, but each has a dark center which, like the pupil in a painting, is always fixed upon you from whatever angle you retreat. The movements of the captive individual are slow, though in the open he can run rather rapidly, and when he is in a hurry he often takes the rather absurd attitude shown at B of Figure 25, with the head down and the wings and body elevated. He never flies, and was never seen to spread his wings, but when making short leaps the wings are slightly fluttered, in preparing for a leap, if only one of a few inches or a foot, he makes very careful preparations, scrutinizing the proposed landing place long and closely, though perhaps he sees better in the dark and acts then with more agility. If the leap is to be made from a horizontal surface, he slowly crouches with the legs drawn together, assuming an attitude more familiar in a cat; but, if the jump is to be from a vertical support, he raises himself on his long front legs as at C of Figure 25,