SUBFAMILY V. GRYLLIX.K. 693 



males emit a shrill sound easily distinguished from that of (Iri/llns 

 litctiiosuts by its higher pitch and the longer duration of the strid- 

 u hit ion. When exposed it waves its long slender antenna* about 

 continually." Later (1914c) they state that "at Key West in July 

 it was everywhere common about the town and that, with the aid 

 of a flash-light, individuals were easily taken when carefully ap- 

 proached and suddenly seized; this was apparently due to the in- 

 sects being blinded by the light for they are certainly the most ac- 

 tive gryllid found within the United States." 



Davis (1914) records them as occurring in a house on Big Pine 

 Key where "they were reported as doing some damage by eating 

 clothing, etc. At night when the lights were out they would come 

 out of their hiding and the males would sing their cheerful and 

 very energetic song/' 



The species is tropical and practically cosmopolitan, Walker's 

 type coming from Australia- It is said to be very common in 

 Cuba and the Bahamas. Caudell (Psyche, 1908, 90) has recorded 

 it as appearing in countless numbers in the hot-houses of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C., where they did 

 considerable damage to various seedlings which they cut off near 

 the ground. The Gryllus pustulipes F. Walker (1869, 51), the 

 Gri/llodcs poeyi Sauss. (1874, 420) and the Miognjllus transver- 

 xtilis Sciidd. (1901b, 257) are synonyms of G. sigiUatus. 



V. MIOGRYLLUS Saussure, 1877, 194. (Gr., "less" -f ''cricket.") 

 Crickets of small or medium size, the species differing from 

 those of Gryllus in the usual absence or extremely inconspicuous 

 nature of the tympanum on inner side of fore tibise; simple or 

 one-branched mediastinal nerve of the tegmina ; strictly longitu- 

 dinal course of the veins on the dorsal field of the female tegmina; 

 shortness of the hind tibia? which are only two-thirds as long as 

 the hind femora and armed above on each side with only four or 

 five spines, and in the usual striped or banded summit of the head. 

 The tegmina and wings vary much in length in the same spe- 

 cies but the short-winged forms are by far the more common. lr. 

 macropterous individuals the wings are two and one-half or 

 more times the length of tegmina, while in brachypterous ones 

 they are represented by mere pads- One of the five species recog- 

 nized by Hebard (1915c) occurs in the Eastern States. 

 332. MIOGRYLLUS VERTICALIS (Serville), 1839, 343. 



Size large for the genus but smaller than most forms of Gryllus; form 

 robust. Color exceedingly variable, ranging from dark brown to almost 

 wholly black; head usually shining black with a narrow yellow stripe 



