Abstract
DURING the past summer an intimate friend of the writer's observed a peculiar case analogous to the Irishman's “spitting on his hands for a fresh hold.” An ordinary katydid, in trying to climb along the slats of a window blind that were very smooth owing to the glazed surface of the paint, kept slipping on the smooth surface. It would raise one front leg and then the other, bringing the foot or claw to its mouth, and there wet it with the “molasses” which exuded from the creature's crop. Is this one of the practical uses made by the locust family of this sticky fluid to enable it to walk upon very smooth surfaces? If so, the writer has never had it brought to his notice before.
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SMITH, A. A Katydid's Resourcefulness. Nature 67, 612 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/067612b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/067612b0
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