586 FAMILY VII. TETTIGONIID^E. THE KATYDIDS. 



inward and downward. Ovipositor more slender, and with an evident but 

 faint downward curve beyond the middle. Other characters as in apterum, 

 the measurements approximately the same. 



Ft. Myers and LaBelle, Fla., March 2 5; three males, two 

 females ( W. 8. B.). Swept from low huckleberry bushes and other 

 foliage along the margins of swales. The differential characters 

 as above given are deemed sufficient to place this as a form of 

 apterum worthy of a varietal name. It will probably be found 

 only in the southern third of Florida. 



Subfamily Y. DECTICINjE. 



THE SHIELD-BEARERS. 



Tettigoniids of large size and peculiar appearance in that 

 they are nearly wingless and have the pronotum more or less pro- 

 longed backward over one or more of the basal segments of abdo- 

 men, thus forming a buckler or shield, whence the common name. 

 Our eastern forms agree in having the face broad, perpendicular 

 or nearly so; eyes small, subglobose, separated by at least three 

 times their own diameters ; antennae very slender, arising from 

 between the inner lower margins of eyes, but little longer than the 

 body; vertex short, one-third or more the width of interocular 

 space, strongly decliveut between the antennae ; pronotum with 

 front margin truncate, hind one rounded or subtruncate ; lateral 

 lobes longer than deep ; prosternum usually armed beneath with 

 two erect spines; tegmina very short, rarely as long as pronotum, 

 developed only as shrilling organs in male, often scarcely visible, 

 female ; wings absent or rudimentary ; tarsi more or less de- 

 pressed, their first two segments sulcate lengthwise on the sides ; 

 front tibiae with a slit-like foramen (hearing organ) each side 

 near base and an apical spine on their upper outer side; front 

 coxae spined ; hind tibiae armed below with four apical spines ; hind 

 tarsi with a free lobe (plantula) at base of first joint; cerci of 

 male variable as to genera and species; ovipositor stout, nearly 

 straight. 



According to Caudell only about 225 species of Decticime 

 distributed among 47 genera, were known in 11)08. They are con- 

 fined mostly to the temperate zones, 20 or more of the genera oc- 

 curring in the United States. The main distribuatiou of these is 

 west of the Mississippi, where some of the species are very abund- 

 ant and do much damage to vegetation. East of that stream but 

 two genera are represented, one of them by a single species. But 

 little is known of the life history of our eastern forms. They ap- 



