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Updated: May 12, 2025
The diversity of means for producing sound in the three families of the Orthoptera and in the Homoptera, impresses the mind with the high importance of these structures to the males, for the sake of calling or alluring the females. We need feel no surprise at the amount of modification which the Orthoptera have undergone in this respect, as we now know, from Dr.
Orsodacna ruficollis. Orthoptera, metamorphosis of; stridulating apparatus of; colours of; rudimentary stridulating organs in female; stridulation of the, and Homoptera, discussed. Ortygornis gularis, pugnacity of the male. Oryctes, stridulation of; sexual differences in the stridulant organs of. Oryx leucoryx, use of the horns of. Osphranter rufus, sexual difference in the colour of.
Stretch, Mr., on the numerical proportion in the sexes of chickens. Stridulation, by males of Theridion; of Hemiptera; of the Orthoptera and Homoptera discussed; of beetles. Stripes, retained throughout groups of birds; disappearance of, in adult mammals. Strix flammea. Structure, existence of unserviceable modifications of. Struggle for existence, in man.
It is instructive to reflect on the wonderful diversity of the means for producing sound, possessed by the males alone, or by both sexes, in no less than six Orders. We thus learn how effectual sexual selection has been in leading to modifications which sometimes, as with the Homoptera, relate to important parts of the organisation.
When flying, it is the only portion of the insect seen; and birds trying to capture it on the wing are likely to get only a mouthful of the flocculent wax. The large Homoptera are much preyed upon by birds. In April, when the Cicadae are piping their shrill cry from morning until night, individuals are often seen whose bulky bodies have been bitten off from the thorax by some bird.
Three species have been captured, all characterised by the same singular feature of having the wings fan-like, separated nearly their entire length into detached sections, resembling feathers in the pinions of a bird expanded for flight. HOMOPTERA. Cicada.
If we admit that the females of the Homoptera and Orthoptera appreciate the musical tones of their male partners, and that the various instruments have been perfected through sexual selection, there is little improbability in the females of other insects appreciating beauty in form or colour, and consequently in such characters having been thus gained by the males.
Landois has recently found in certain Orthoptera rudimentary structures closely similar to the sound-producing organs in the Homoptera; and this is a surprising fact. See 'Zeitschrift fur wissenschaft Zoolog. B. xxii.
Macgillivray during the voyage of the Rattlesnake, the following have been selected for illustration; references to and descriptions of some of the Diptera, Homoptera, and Hemiptera, collected by him, have appeared in the Catalogues of the British Museum drawn up hy Messrs. Walker and Dallas, while the names and descriptions of others will appear in catalogues in preparation.
In two families of the Homoptera and in three of the Orthoptera, the males alone possess sound-producing organs in an efficient state. These are used incessantly during the breeding-season, not only for calling the females, but apparently for charming or exciting them in rivalry with other males.
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