394 FAMILY VI. -ACRIDIDJE. THE LOCUSTS. 



Bruner records daw son i as not rare in Nebraska on low 

 grounds, while Somes (1914, 77) states that in Minnesota, between 

 June 21 and Sept. 10, "it is a much more common and widely dis- 

 tributed species than If. scndderi and appears to adapt itself to 

 more varied conditions of habitat than any other of our brachyp- 

 terous forms, being most abundant amid such brushy growths as 

 Symphoricarpos, Corylus and Taa-us." It is said by Gillette to 

 be common, up to 8,000 feet, on the foothills in Colorado, where 

 mountainous plants and scrub oaks form practically the only vege- 

 tation. Pczotcttijr tclliistris Scudder (1876, 502) and P. abditum 

 Dodge (1877, 113) are synonyms. M. dawsoni is a somewhat aber- 

 rant form of the present group, but is apparently more closely 

 related to its members than to those of the next group with some 

 of which it was classed by Scudder. 



183. MELAXOPLUS SCUDDERI (Uhler), 1864, 555. Scudcler's Short-winged 



Locust. 



Size small for the genus, medium for the group, the females distinctly 

 the larger. Above dull reddish- or wood-brown, nearly uniform in the 

 female; face greenish-yellow, much mottled with fuscous; the male, and 

 sometimes the female, with an indistinct postocular fuscous stripe reaching 

 the metazona. Upper surface of abdomen often clouded with fuscous. 

 Hind femora usually with two faint dark bars on upper and inner faces, 

 knees blackish. Under surface dull clay- to bright yellow. Interoculaf 

 space about as broad as frontal costa, female, two-thirds as broad, male; 

 fastigium strongly declivent, its median concavity shallow. Frontal costa 

 feebly sulcate at and below the ocellus, female, nearly throughout, male. 

 Pronotum with disk broadly convex, prozona from a fourth to a half longer 

 than the densely punctate metazona; front margin truncate or nearly so, 

 often faintly notched in middle, hind margin obtuse-angled. Tegmina, 

 elongate-ovate, male, more broadly ovate, female, their inner edges slightly 

 separated or attingent, male, usually slightly over-lapping, female. Supra- 

 anal plate triangular, its apex acute-angulate, the median ridges narrow, 

 sharp, enclosing a narrow, deep, almost percurrent median sulcus which 

 slightly widens apically (PI. Ill, &.) Furcula minute triangular pro- 

 cesses lying obliquely on the bases of the median ridges. Cerci as de- 

 scribed in key, about twice as long as their basal breadth, slightly incurved, 

 their apical halves broadly concave (Fig. 136, 6.) Subgenital plate small, 

 conical, the upper margin subacute. Length of body, $ , 16.2 18.5, 9 

 2224; of antennae, $ and 9, 7.58; of pronotum, $, 5.25.6, 9, 6.2 

 6.7; of tegmina, $, 5.25.5, 9, 78; of hind femora, $, 10.5 12, 9, 

 12.514 mm. 



In Indiana this dull colored locust is the most abundant of 

 the short-winged species of Hrlano^lns, occurring throughout the 

 State, but more common in the southern portion. In the central 

 counties it begins to reach maturity about August 5th, and has 

 been taken as late as November 22d. It is one of the most com- 



