It shelters its instrument under a sort of dome formed by the corselet, which is curved saddlewise. As usual, the left scale occupies the upper position and bears on its lower surface a file in which we can distinguish with the lens eighty transversal denticulations, more powerful and more clearly cut than those possessed by any other of the Grasshopper tribe. The right scale is underneath. At the top of its slightly flattened dome, the mirror gleams, framed in a strong nervure. For elegance of structure, this instrument is superior to the Cicada’s, in which the contraction of two columns of muscles alternately pulls in and lets out the convex surface of two barren cymbals. It needs sound-chambers, resonators, to become a noisy apparatus. As things are, it emits a lingering and plaintive tchi-i-i, tchi-i-i, tchi-i-i, in a minor key, which is heard even farther than the blithe bowing of the White-faced Decticus. When disturbed in their repose, the Decticus and the other Grasshoppers at once become silent, struck dumb with fear. With them, singing invariably expresses gladness. The Ephippiger also dreads to be disturbed and baffles with his sudden silence whoso seeks to find him. But take him between your fingers. Often he will resume his stridulation with erratic strokes of the bow. At such times the song denotes anything but happiness, fear rather and all the anguish of danger. The Cicada likewise rattles more shrilly than ever when a ruthless child dislocates his abdomen and forces open his chapels. In both cases, the gay refrain of the mirthful insect turns into the lamentation of a persecuted victim. A second peculiarity of the Ephippiger’s, unknown to the other singing insects, is worthy of remark. Both sexes are endowed with the sound-producing apparatus. The female, who, in the other Grasshoppers, is always dumb, with not even a vestige of bow or mirror, acquires in this instance a musical instrument which is a close copy of the male’s. The left scale covers the right. Its edges are fluted with thick, pale nervures, forming a fine-meshed network; the centre, on the other hand, is smooth and swells into an amber-coloured dome. Underneath, this dome is supplied with two concurrent nervures, the chief of which is slightly wrinkled on its ridge. The right scale is similarly constructed, but for one detail: the central dome, which also is amber-coloured, is traversed by a nervure which describes a sort of sinuous line and which, under the magnifying-glass, reveals very fine transversal teeth throughout the greater part of its length.