698 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLIDJE. THE CRICKETS. 



which varietal or racial names have been retained by recent 

 American authors. Since the characters of all such races, varie- 

 ties, or even species, for that matter, are resultant in great part 

 from ''variable environment," and since the grouping or placing 

 of any series of closely related forms is largely a matter of per- 

 sonal opinion or viewpoint of the worker, and as names are more 

 readily grasped and remembered than symbols, I have retained 

 the older names of the more distinct forms of tiryllns as trinom- 

 ials. The student may either use them as such and call them 

 variants, varieties or forms of assiniilis, or discard them altogether 

 and lump his native field crickets under the one name (Jryllus as- 

 siniilis as R. & H. and Morse have done, a procedure which Piers 

 (1918, 338) terms a "simple solution of the Gordian knot.'' 



KEY TO EASTERN SPECIES AND VARIETIES OF GRYLLUS. 



a. Black species, the tegmina and parts of the body sometimes dull yel- 

 lowish or reddish-brown; head never with distinct blackish cross- 

 bars; first joint of antennae not projecting beyond front of head. 



(ASSIMILIS 81 ). 



1}. Hind femora wholly or in great part pale reddish-brown; teg- 

 mina, cerci and legs usually wholly or in great part dull red- 

 dish-brown. 



c. Larger, length of body, male and female, 20 or more mm.; hind 

 tibiae with seven or eight spines on each upper margin. 



333a. FIRMUS. 



cc. Smaller, less than 16 mm.; hind tibiae with only five or six 

 spines on each margin. 333b. SCUDDERIANTJS. 



bl). Hind femora black or fuscous with only the basal third reddish- 

 brown beneath; tegmina and legs rarely reddish-brown. 

 (I. Ovipositor nearly or fully half as long again as hind femora, 

 16 or more mm. in length; head of male swollen, distinctly 

 wider than front of pronotum. 333c. I/UCTUOSUS. 



dd. Ovipositor less than half as long again as hind femora, rarely 

 over 14 mm. in length; head of male but little if any wider 

 than front of pronotum. 



e. Color in fresh specimens not shining black, but with a very 

 fine grayish pubescence or "bloom:" tegmina of female 

 with their inner edges either overlapping or attingent their 

 full length; length of ovipositor 13 14 mm. 



333d. PENNSYLVANICTJS. 



ee. Color shining black, tegmina rarely piceous or dull brownish- 

 yellow; tegmina of female with the basal halves overlap- 

 ping or attingent, the apical halves (always in vernaTis. 



sl The typical form of Crvlliis assiinilis is s"' 1 tronical and occurs in the United States 

 only along the coast of Southern California. The form integer Scudder (igoia, 268) has 

 heen recorded by Caudell from near Washington ,D. C., and by Kostir (on Caudell's 

 determination) from Cedar Point, Ohio. As Scudder described it from the Pacific 

 States and R. & H. (IQISC) restrict its range to the mountains of the arid portions of 

 the southwestern United States and California, it is not included in the key. It is dis- 

 tinguished from pcntisyl'car.icus by Scudder by having the pronotum nearly twice as 

 broad as long. 



