94 OETHOPTEEA. 



depressed in the vicinity of the ocellus, rather coarsely punctate throughout. Face only slightly oblique, 

 when viewed from the side broadly rounded. Pronotum a little broader behind than in front, the sides 

 somewhat compressed ; lateral carina? rather faint at the point where they approach closest ; front edge 

 rounded, hind edge broadly angulate. Tegmina abbreviate, about two-fifths the length of the abdomen. 

 Hind femora heavy at the base, reaching slightly beyond the tip of the abdomen. Hind tibiae heavy, with 

 long, coarse spines and claws. 



.Brownish-cinereous, heavily blotched with fuscous. Lateral carinas and a raised elongate streak near the 

 middle of the sides of the pronotum, an oblique narrow line on the metapleura, and another but perpen- 

 dicular one just before the insertion of the hind femora, white. Occiput and disc of the pronotum with 

 an equal, black-bordered, testaceous stripe ; the lower edges of the sides of the latter also more or less 

 testaceous. Abdomen also with a paler dorsal stripe. Venter and lower side of thorax yellowish. Insect 

 otherwise generally obscured with irregular, coalescing blotches of brownish-fuscous. The hind femora 

 without very decided bands, but generally mottled with brownish colouring. Tegmina flecked with dusky 

 along the discal and dorsal fields. 



Length of body, 5 , 22 ; of pronotum 4, of tegmina 6, of hind femora 13'5 millim. 



Ilab. Mexico, Cuernavaca in Morelos (C. C. Beam). 



A single female specimen, captured in January. It is without antennae, but the 

 blunt vertex and much heavier hind femora at once distinguish the insect from the 

 North- American forms. The species is not represented in the * Biologia ' collection. 



BOOPEDON, Thomas. 

 Gryllus, Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. iv. p. 308 (1825) (part.) ; Ent. N. Amer., ed. Lee. ii. 



p. 237 (1859). 

 Boopedon, Thomas, Prelim. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. Wyoming, pp. 265, 272 (1871) ; Syn. Acrid. 



N. Amer. p. 141, t. fig. 11 (1873); Bruner, Canad. Ent. ix. p. 144 (1877); Scudder, 



Genera and Class. N. Amer. Orthopt. p. 29 (1897) ; McNeill, Proc. Dav. Acad. Nat. Sci. vi. 



p. 24 (1897). 



Judging from the material before me, it seems probable that the true home of the 

 genus Boopedon is the semiarid plateau regions of Mexico. Several of the well-known 

 forms have, it is true, been described from localities outside that district, but most of 

 them come from its immediate borders. Like the representatives of the allied genera, 

 the individuals of several species vary considerably in coloration and also, to some 

 extent, in wing-length. In localities where found, these insects are restricted to certain 

 isolated areas, but are by no means rare, this restriction depending apparently upon some 

 peculiar physical condition of the soil, and perhaps also on the kind of vegetation 

 present. Several of them appear to be more or less gregarious in their habits. 



The species known at present together with those now described may be recognized 

 by the subjoined table: — 



Table for separating the Species of Boopedon. 



A\ Pronotum with the last transverse sulcus situated about the middle. 

 Head large, smooth, rounded. Tegmina and wings of the £ 

 nearly or quite equalling the abdomen in length, those of the ? 

 abbreviated, acuminate. $ , for the most part, black or blackish. 



