402 FAMILY VI. ACRIDID.E. THE LOCUSTS. 



dull yellow. Outer face of hind femora largely blackish-brown, shining, 

 with two large spots on basal third and another behind middle, yellow. 

 Apical half or more of hind tibiae red (rarely dull yellow), basal portion 

 fuscous with a paler annulus behind knee. Female duller, the stripe be- 

 hind eye faint, dark bars on hind femora seal brown. Occiput convex, 

 higher than pronotum; interocular space about two-thirds as wide, male, 

 or three-fourths as wide, female, as frontal costa, between the antennae; 

 fastigium as in fasciatus. Frontal costa low, rather wide, feebly sulcate 

 below the ocellus, evanescent before reaching clypeus. Pronotum with me- 

 dian carina absent on prozona, transverse sulci very faint; prozona but 

 about one-fifth longer than metazona. Tegmina covering two-thirds or 

 more of abdomen. Hind femora slender, strongly surpassing tip of ab- 

 domen, male, reaching the tip, female. Supra-anal plate of male broadly 

 triangular, basal median ridges low, more widely separated than usual, 

 uniting with cross carina at middle of plate; furcula scarcely evident, be- 

 ing only slightly projecting convex points lying each side of the wide 

 emargination of the last dorsal segment. Cerci and subgenital plate as 

 described in key (Fig. 139, &.) Length of body, $, 22.527, $, 32.232.8; 

 of antennae, $ , 15.5, 9, 12.5; of pronotum, $, 6.2 6.5, $, 6.7 7.9; of teg- 

 mina. $, 1011.7, 9, 11.612.5; of hind femora, $, 15.816.7, 5, 17.3 

 18.3 mm. 



This locust is recorded only from Thomasville, Ga., where 

 Hebard took about 30 specimens, November 30 December 13. 

 They were first mentioned by K. & H. (1904, 791) as M. nigrescens 

 Scudd., and were found in colonies in the vicinity of clumps of 

 scrub oaks in pine woods. Hebard states that "the males seemed 

 peculiarly unwary and occasionally one would be almost trodden 

 upon before it would jump. The females were more unwieldy 

 than the males, but were very powerful. Both sexes, owing to 

 the shortness of their wings, were wholly unable to fly." The fe- 

 male resembles closely those of Af. walshii but is larger, with 

 longer tegmina, the tips of which are narrowly rounded, not sub- 

 acute as in that sex of walsliil. 



188. MELANOPLUS NIGRESCENS (Scudder), 1877b, 27. Black-sided Locust. 

 Size medium, form robust. Dull wood-brown, upper halves of lateral 

 lobes and costal and discoidal areas of tegmina blackish. Antennas red- 

 dish-brown, slightly infuscated at tip. Face flecked with fuscous. Meta- 

 pleura yellowish, edged on either side with black. Hind femora brown- 

 ish-yellow with a broad black band each side of middle, whose edges follow 

 the impressed lines, the basal one sending a shoot to base; hind tibiae vin- 

 ous-red slightly infuscated at base. Frontal costa broad, shallowly sulcate 

 throughout except just above the antenna?. Pronotum with median carina 

 distinct only on metazona, disk separated from the lateral lobes by a dis- 

 tinct but bluntly rounded angle; front margin subtruncate, faintly emar- 

 ginate in female, hind one very obtusely angulate. Prosternal spine rather 

 long, cylindrical, apically tapering but blunt; interspace between mesos- 

 ternal lobes half as long again as broad, male, quadrate, female. Tegmina 

 longer than pronotum, covering only half the abdomen, tapering, apically 



