SUBFAMILY III. LOCUSTINJE. 



375 



Fig. 130. Fe- 

 male. X T -S- 

 (Original.) 



north of Tipprranoe Co. In central Indiana it 

 reaches maturity about September 1, and frequents, 

 for the most part, high, dry, open woods, especially 

 those in which beech and oak trees predominate. On 

 the tops of the hills, in the coal district of Vigo Co., 

 and on the wooded slopes of the Knobs of southern 

 Indiana, where the soil is a clay, and the herbaceous 

 vegetation somewhat limited, it is, in mid-autumn, 

 the prevailing, and often only, representative of the 

 family. While mostly xerophytic in habitat, in late 

 October, if the season is dry, it is often found in 

 company with Dichromorpha viridis and Truxalis 

 brevicornis among the reeds and tall rank grasses 

 near the border of marshes, and as late as November 

 22, has been noted enjoying the afternoon sunshine 

 from a perch on the bottom plank or rail of a fence. 

 About Lafayette Fox (1915, 20) found it only in the 

 herbaceous thickets surrounding marshes or damp 

 spots. The females are always much more numerous 

 than the males, the ratio being about five to one. Their larger, 

 robust form renders them more clumsy and hence more easily 

 caught by the hand, the males being active leapers and requiring 

 quick movement on the part of the collector to effect their cap- 

 ture. Like the other short-winged sylvan species, obovatipennis 

 often appears in colonies, a score or more being sometimes noted 

 within an area of a few square rods and then no others seen 

 for a long distance. 



The known range of J/. obovatipennis extends from southern 

 Ohio (Kostir) and north-central Indiana west to Missouri and 

 south and southwest to Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tex- 

 as. Scudder (1897, 205) records it from High Bridge and Mam- 

 moth Cave, Ky., St. Louis, Mo., and Dallas, Texas. Fox (Ms.) 

 reports it as occurring near Clarksville, Tenn. McNeill (l.S99a, 

 309) states that it is a rather uncommon species in Washington 

 and Sebastian counties, Ark., and that it is the species recorded 

 by him (1891, 77) as Pczotetti.r iinincux Smith from Running 

 Lake, 111. Hart (1900, 81) states that it occurs on ''high wooded 

 hillsides throughout Illinois." Morse (1907, 50) mentions it as "a 

 very common species in xerophytic upland forests in Arkansas 

 and probably much of the territory of the adjoining States," and 

 records it from numerous stations in Arkansas and from Howe 

 and South McAlester, Okla. These are the only definite records 

 which have been found of its occurrence. 



