376 FAMILY VI. ACRIDIDJE. THE LOCUSTS. 



166. MELAXOPLUS TEPIDUS Morse, 1906, 121. 



Size and form of obovatipennis. Color much as there, the dark posto- 

 cular stripe more shining, broader, deflexed to cover all three pleurae. In- 

 terocular space narrower, more deeply sulcate; eyes slightly larger. Pro- 

 notum a little more elongate, its sides more divergent on metazona; disk 

 more tectiform, the prozona finely alutaceous; lateral lobes longer, less 

 deep. Tegmina of male more elongate, less widely separated; of female 

 somewhat broader, more approximate above. Furcula shorter, less taper- 

 ing, their bases more swollen; apical halves subdepressed, the tips obtuse. 

 Cerci with apical halves broadly and deeply sulcate without. Upper valves 

 of ovipositor narrower at base in side view, the dorsum of scoop longer 

 and more narrow. 



Three pairs taken by Morse at Meridian, Miss., July 16, 1905. 

 No additional records or notes regarding the habits can be found. 

 He stated (11)07, 23) that "the range of Melanopliis obovatipennis 

 has been extended south to southern Mississippi in the nearly re- 

 lated form tcpidus, which may intergrade." A comparison of his 

 types with obovatipennis shoAvs that the two differ as shown 

 above, tepidux. in my opinion, being a very distinct form. 



167. MELANOPLUS MORSEI Blatchley, 1903, 309. Morse's Locust. 



Male below the medium in size, female larger and more robust. Gray- 

 ish or purplish-brown above, greenish-yellow below. Face greenish-yellow 

 more or less sprinkled with fuscous; the usual postocular stripe shining 

 black, bordered below with greenish-yellow. Tegmina wood-brown. Hind 

 femora reddish-brown, sometimes with a fuscous tmge in female, upper 

 and inner faces usually with two faint fuscous cross-bars; knees shining 

 black; hind tibia? pale green. Vertex but little swollen, not at all, male, 

 or slightly female, elevated above the pronotum; interocular space about 

 as wide, male, or less than one and one-half times as wide, female, as basal 

 joint of antennae; fastigium gently sloping, distinctly angulate at middle 

 of each side, sulcate in male, flat in female. Frontal costa slightly wider 

 than basal joint of antennae, feebly sulcate below the ocellus in male. 

 Eyes of male very prominent. Disk of pronotum faintly expanding on 

 metazona, male, distinctly throughout, female; median carina low, sub- 

 obsolete on posterior third of prozona, the latter nearly twice the length 

 of the rather coarsely punctate metazona. Tegmina broadly ovate or sub- 

 rounded, as broad as long, in female a little shorter than pronotum, their 

 inner edges separated by a space equal to two-thirds their width. Supra- 

 anal plate as in obovatipennis, the shallow and narrow medium sulcus usu- 

 ally percurrent. Furcula as described in key, the outer fingers slender, 

 feebly divergent, reaching nearly to middle of supra-anal plate, the inner 

 ones forming a very short process or angulation (PI. Ill, f. ) Cerci rather 

 broad, subfalcate, the middle third more than one-half the width of base, 

 the apical third expanded and curved upward or forward, excavated on the 

 outer face. Subgenital plate longer than broad, distinctly narrowing from 

 below upward, its apical margin subelliptical. Length of body, $ , 17 18, 

 9, 23 25; of antenna, $ , 10 11, 9, 8 9; of pronotum, $, 4 5, 9, 5.5; 



