420 FAMILY VI. ACUIDlILi:. TIIIO LOCUSTS. 



men distinctly enlarged, moderately upcurved; supra-anal plate elongate- 

 triangular, its apex subacute, lateral margins thickened and strongly ele- 

 vated to form a deep, elongate concavity each side the median sulcus, the 

 latter rather wide, percurrent, its apical fourth distinctly expanding; pal- 

 lium not or scarcely elevated. Furcula consisting of a pair of tapering 

 subcylindrical spines, about half as long as supra-anal plate, their basal 

 third flattened and attingent, apical two-thirds well separated and lying 

 just outside the median ridges (PI. IV, k.) Cerci as in key and figure 

 cited. Subgenital plate with apex less than half the breadth of base, its 

 margins not elevated, truncate and strongly rounded. Length of body, <J , 

 1723, 9, 1827; of antennae, $, 810, 9, 88.5; of pronotum. $, 

 4.55, 9, 56; of tegmina, $, 1520, 9, 1723; of hind femora, $, 11- 

 13, 9,12 14.5mm. (Fig. 143.) 



This is the most common and one of the most injurious of our 

 Indiana locusts. It occurs everywhere in blue-grass pastures and 



meadows, along roadsides and borders 

 of cultivated fields, on city lawns and 

 in open woodlands. In central Indiana 

 it begins to reach maturity about June 

 5th, and has been seen in numbers and 

 mating as late as November 25th. Those 

 which occur in low, damp places are usually darker than those in 

 dry upland localities. The second crop of clover is, in a dry sea- 

 son, often almost wholly destroyed by this species and J/. diffcr- 

 entiftlix. When disturbed they either hop vigorously to one side, 

 or fly swiftly and noiselessly straight ahead for 30 or more feet 

 and then suddenly drop to the ground. 



The range of J7. fcniitr-riilirtini is practically that of America 

 north of central Mexico. In the southeastern states and Florida 

 the typical form is replaced by that of the doubtful race pmjthi- 

 <II<HN Scudd. It is not known from Alaska, and some of its most 

 northern records perhaps properly belong to M. borealis (Fieb.). 

 Wherever found it is very common and the aggregate amount of 

 damage it annually does throughout North America is an enor- 

 mous one. The northern form, in spite of its wide distribution, 

 varies but little in color and structure ; the hind tibiae being very 

 rarely dull yellow, green or greenish. The tegmina vary somewhat 

 in length, reaching from the tips of hind femora to 5 mm. beyond 

 in both sexes, being rarely 1 mm. shorter than the tips in female. 

 Of the habits of the red-legged locust much has been written. 

 Scudder, in his Revision (1S07, 278) and in his Index to North 

 American Orthoptera (lOOlci has given full references to all its 

 literature. I quote, therefore, only the concluding paragraphs of 

 his notes on this species in the former work, as follows: 



