438 FAMILY VI. ACRIDID.l-:. THE LOCUSTS. 



most recent writers, and there is no doubt but that the two forms 

 represent a single species, though Kirby (1910, 528) lists them as 

 distinct, and in the most recent local list of American Ortkop- 

 tera, that of McAtee & Caudell (1918), the name coll inns is re- 

 tained. R. & H. (1910, 242) give their opinion regarding the 

 eastern and western forms as follows : 



"It would be difficult to imagine individuals, without even racial sig- 

 nificance, differing more greatly in general appearance than do the long- 

 winged slender examples of luridus from the northwestern portion of its 

 range, from the heavy, short-winged type which is often found in Connec- 

 ticut and New Jersey southward through the Appalachians. This is par- 

 ticularly true of the female sex; northwestern material bearing a strong 

 superficial resemblance to M. atlanis, while the southeastern is vastly 

 heavier with a different general appearance. Intergradation between 

 these types is, however, almost everywhere to be found and no valid rea- 

 son exists for separating the eastern and western material as geographic 

 races." 



The known range of M. /,-. luriditx is a very wide one, extend- 

 ing from Maine north and northwest to North Bay, Out., Aweme, 

 Man., Minnesota and Montana, south to the crests of the higher 

 mountains of North Carolina and Georgia and west to Kansas, 

 Nebraska and Colorado. According to Walker (1899, 33) it is 

 quite plentiful in Ontario in late summer, frequenting sandy or 

 gravelly uplands and the more or less open or rocky unsettled 

 country such as characterizes the Laurentian area in that region. 

 Along the Severn River he found it in August to be the most 

 abundant locust, far outnumbering any other Alchnioplns. Mc- 

 Neill (1891, 74) states that in northern Illinois it is "closely re- 

 stricted to the tops of hills and sides of ravines too barren for 

 pasturage." Fox (1917) calls it "a typical sylvan species, fre- 

 quenting the grassy and shrubby undergrowth of dry woodlands, 

 and abundant in the Appalachian region of Virginia along the 

 margins of the woods and in clearings on the mountain slopes/' 

 R. & H. (1910a, 63r>) record luridm* "as being the most plentiful 

 species of Melanoplus on all the mountains of North Carolina, at 

 altitudes above 4,000 feet." Morse (1904, 44) mentions it from 

 numerous stations in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Ten- 

 nessee and calls it "an expert leaper, using its legs, as a means of 

 escaping its enemies, quite as freely as its wings, though flying 

 freely on occasion." West of the Mississippi M. k. luridus is 

 stated by Brunei' to be quite common, especially on the prairies 

 over the most of Nebraska, while Gillette says it is an abundant 

 species in northern Colorado, east of the mountains, the native 

 food plant being the wormwood or sage brush, Artemisia dracun- 

 eidokles Pursh." 



