704 FAMILY VIII. GRYLLIDvE. THE CRICKETS. 



land, Nova Scotia and New England west to British Columbia and 

 California and south and southwest to southern Florida, eastern 

 Texas and New Mexico. R. & H. (1915c, 302) say that "it is the 

 dominant variant of the species in the well watered regions of 

 temperate North America." 



In Florida I have taken pennsylvanicus at Ormond, Sanford, 

 LaBelle, Sarasota and Dunedin. Elsewhere in the State it is re- 

 corded definitely only from Orange City Junction by Caudell 

 (1905) and Miami by Hebard (1915b). About Ormond it was the 

 only field cricket noted in March and April, while around Dune- 

 din both adults and nymphs are fairly plentiful from December 

 to April- 



Of iH'iiiixi/lriuiiC'iis in Ontario Walker says (1904, 251) : "The 

 chirp of the adult is first heard about the third week in May, the 

 last toward the end of July. They are numerous about midsum- 

 mer, when the fields and pastures resound with their song. They 

 are very difficult to obtain, for they are not gregarious like <il>- 

 Ircriatns, but usually occur in pairs hidden in the rubbish under 

 some thick tuft of grass or weeds or under the edge of a stone. It 

 requires the utmost care and patience to trace the song to its 

 source, but if this is done successfully one is often rewarded by 

 finding the female as well as the male." Of its habits in the south 

 A Hard (1911c, 147) says: 



"Careful studies of a number of musical insects have shown the writer 

 that very marked differences of striclulation may characterize certain 

 species in different parts of their range. This has been found especially 

 true of Gryllus 'pennsylvanicus. The sprightly intermittent chirps of the 

 New England individuals no more resemble the weak, continuous Oecan- 

 thus- like trill of the northern Georgia individuals than the notes of Oecan- 

 thus niveus resemble the very dissimilar trill of Oecanthus latipennis. Not 

 only is the stridulation very dissimilar, but the general habits are unlike. 

 In New England Gryllus pennsylvanicus fairly swarms in grass fields and 

 pastures during autumn, chirping everywhere in plain sight. In northern 

 Georgia this cricket becomes exceedingly abundant in March, April and 

 May. In this region it is very shy and secluded in its habits, stridulating 

 beneath matted leaves, clods of earth, and grass in fields, and oftentimes 

 in deep burrows in pastures. It is rarely seen unless deliberately uncov- 

 ered and unearthed. By midsummer its stridulations are rarely heard." 



333e. GRYLLUS ASSIMILIS VERNALIS nomen. nov. S2 Spring Field Cricket. 



Size small for the genus. Female short-bodied, robust, male more 

 slender. Nearly uniform black, shining; tegmina of female sometimes 

 with a reddish-brown tinge at base and along humeral angle; hind femora 

 with lower and inner sides of basal third feebly or not at all tinged with 



S2 To replace the name Gryllns aincrii-aniis of my former work (1903, 433) which was 

 preoccupied hy the G. aiiu"'icanus Drnry (1773, 121.1 



