Crickets And Katydids, Concerts Solos

From Mount Washington to the salt marshes of Cape Cod, a chorus of insects chirrups and peeps and rustles away the golden hours of summer and fall. In Crickets and Katydids , Vincent G. Dethier invites readers to share in the pleasure offered by these tiny musicians in our midst. A companion volume to G.W. Pierce's 1948 Songs of insects , this book introduces amateur naturalists and lovers of nature to some of the more common singing crickets, locusts, and grasshoppers of the northeastern United States. Dethier emphasizes the world of these insects and their place in it. He presents a glimpse of the ecology of the singing Orthoptera, the conditions under which they are studied, and the people who have studied them. For those who wish to delve more deeply into the classification, structure, and habits of particular species, Dethier includes keys for identification of insects and their songs, as well as a table of seasonal distribution.

"Vincent Dethier shows us how to listen for sound in fields, edges, and woods and to become aware of the movements that accompany sound...We learn from his sounds what kind of person, capable of this kind of interest and care, is attending to our minds. His own sound becomes part of the community of sound common to most, if not nearly all, life, so we are doubly trained to hear, and we become doubly committed to understanding and caring for all forms of life." --A. R. Ammons, from the foreword