258 FAMILY VI. ACRIDID.E. THE LOCUSTS. 



ing to the width of the fastigium of vertex. As to the color, viri- 

 difasciata is notable for its variation in that character; so much 

 so, indeed, that it has more synonyms than any other North Amer- 

 ican locust, the majority of these being based on color alone. Spec- 

 imens at hand from Duuedin, Fla., are wholly without trace of 

 fuscous blotches on the dorsal face of hind femora, so that in the 

 key this difference, thought to be constant, had to be modified by 

 the word "usually." I therefore regard australior as, at the most, 

 only a southern geographic race or variety of viridifasciata. R. & 

 H. (loc. cit.) have stated that it is closer to cubensis Scudder 

 than to riri<Hfascia1a, and as it cannot be any closer to the latter 

 species than it is without becoming an absolute synonym it is 

 very probable that time will show that all three forms, viridifas- 

 ciata, cu'bensis and australior, named in the order of their descrip- 

 tion, are but variations of one widely distributed and exceedingly 

 variable North American species which will retain DeGeer's name. 

 In Florida C. r. auslraUor has been taken by me at all points 

 where collections have been made, and it is recorded from many 

 different localities by other collectors, so that it doubtless occurs 

 everywhere throughout the State. Like the northern form it fre- 

 quents old fields, gardens and waste places along roadsides, rail- 

 ways and the borders of forests, but is rarely if ever found far 

 within the woodlands. About Dunedin both adults and nymphs 

 occur throughout the winter, the latter being, however, in various 

 stages, by far the more common. As in the north, the brown males 

 greatly outnumber the green ones, but the brown females are much 

 more numerous proportionally than in the northern form. A num- 

 ber of individuals have been taken with the head, pronotuni and 

 hind femora of a handsome and striking reddish-purple hue, but 

 this also happens occasionally in viridifasciata as noted by the 

 writer (1903, 259). The range of the form australior is given by 

 R, & H. (1910, 179) as extending "from the Dry Tortugas, Fla., 

 northward to Savannah, Ga., the most northwestern localities at 

 which it lias been found being Tifton, Albany and Spring Creek, 

 Ga., and Fort Barrancas, Fla." It has several times been record- 

 ed from Florida under the names ( 1 liorto]>li<i(/a viridifasciata and 

 Encoptolofili us costatiis. 



III. ENCOPTOLOPHUS Scudder, 1875c, 478. (Gr., "cut" + "crest.") 



Body a little shorter and stouter than in Chortophaga, com- 

 pressed as there, the head more swollen; vertex broadly triangu- 

 lar, the apical half sloping feebly downward, disk with a deep con- 

 cavity, its sides low; median carina present on basal half of con- 



