GRASSHOPPER'S COUSINS
Fig. 30. The handsome meadow grasshopper, Orchelimum laticauda
Upper figure, a male; lower, a female
the wings is marked by a brown spot at each corner. These little grasshoppers readily sing in confinement, both in the day and at night. Their music is very unpretentious and might easily be lost out of doors, consisting mostly of a sort, rustling buzz that lasts two or three seconds. Often the buzz is preceded or followed by a series of clicks made by a slower movement of the wings. Frequently the player opens the wings for the start of the song with a single click, then proceeds with the buzz, and finally closes with a few slow movements that produce the concluding series of clicks. But very commonly he gives only the buzz without prelude or staccato ending.
Another common member of the genus is the agile meadow grasshopper, Orchelimum agile. Its music is said to be a long zip, zip, zip, zee-e-e-e, with the zip syllable repeated many times. These two elements, the zip and zee, are characteristic of the songs of all the Orchelimums, some giving more stress to the first and others to the second, and
Fig. 31. The slender meadow grasshopper, Conocephalus fasciatus, one of the smallest members of the katydid family
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