676 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLID.I3. THE CRICKETS. 



black field cricket; and may be expressed by r-r-r-n, pronounced as 

 though it were a French word. The note is trilled forcibly, and 

 lusts a variable length of time. One of these insects was once ob- 

 served while singing to its mate. At first the song was mild and 

 frequently broken ; afterwards it grew impetuous, forcible and 

 more prolonged; then it decreased in volume and extent until it 

 became quite soft and feeble. At this point the male began to 

 approach the female, uttering a series of twittering chirps; the 

 fomale ran away, and the male, after a short chase, returned to 

 his old haunt, singing with the same vigor but with more frequent 

 pauses. At length, finding all persuasions unavailing, he 

 brought his serenade to a close." 



Allard (1910) states that throughout October and early No- 

 vember ".Y. f. rittatus fairly swarms in the grass fields and pas 

 tures of much of New England,'' but he had never taken there the 

 long-winged one. Around Washington, 1). (\ he found the two 

 forms intermingling in some localities, and in others the long 

 winged one wholly absent. He adds: 



"About Oxford, Mass., two singing forms of N. f. vittatus are very com- 

 mon. The stridulation of one of these is a very high pitched, prolonged 

 trill, ti-t i-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti : that of the other form is a very brief, shrill, in- 

 termittent tiiii-tiiii-tiiii. A considerably lower pitch quite sharply distin- 

 guishes the brief intermittent notes, tiiii-tiiii, from the prolonged trill. 

 These two trilling forms of vittatus are quite definitely confined in sepa- 

 rate colonies, and in different localities. The prolonged trilling form oc- 

 cupies almost exclusively the dry, grassy upland fields and pastures. In 

 the damp and marshy low grounds in fields and pastures this form is re- 

 placed almost entirely by pure colonies of the intermittent trilling form. 

 Only where the wet and dry conditions overlap is there a noticeable in- 

 termingling of the two forms. At Oxford this is the most abundant insect 

 of late autumn, and continues to trill in the fields until overcome by the 

 keen, freezing nights of November." 



The known synonyms of X. fasciatus are Aclicta liospcs Fab. 

 (1775, 281) ; Aclicta vittatii Harris (1835, 576), the short-winged 

 form above mentioned; Ncntoli'ms c.riyuus Scudder (1862, 429) and 

 N- utaliensis Scudd. 1896a, 103). The N. canus Scudder of my 

 former work (1903, 423) is also .placed by Hebard as only a pale 

 form of N. fasc'iiitm*, the true N. canus being a synonym of T. f. 

 soc'uis Scudd. 

 320a. NEMOBITJS FASCIATUS ABORTIVUS Caudell, 1904b, 248. 



Smaller than typical fasciatus. Color darker, in some specimens al- 

 most black; tegmina transparent sooty brown, the main veins darker, the 

 lateral or costal field blackish, not pale as in fasciatus: femora usually 

 black; dorsum of abdomen dark brown. Tegmina shorter than hind fe- 

 mora. Ovipositor with apex enlarged for a shorter distance and serrate 



