280 FAMILY VI. ACRIDIDJE. THE LOCUSTS. 



ing his mistake lie leaps down behind them and sulks in disap- 

 pointment. Arising stealthily with a quick motion I throw the 

 net flat down over them and capture the trio at one stroke.'' 



In the notes following his original description, Morse says: 

 "I have named this species mxatile for the reason that it finds life 

 most to its taste in unsettled somewhat wooded districts of a 

 rocky, often elevated character. Here it finds a congenial home 

 and may be seen during the latter half of the season crawling ac- 

 tively about over the lichened ledges, whose tints harmonize with 

 its own, or flying from one to another, stridulating loudly as it 

 goes. In its fresh state it is one of the most handsome of our New 

 England locusts and even cabinet specimens vividly recall the cool 

 gray of the rocks, the glory of the golden-rod and the tints of the 

 reddened stems of trailing vines. So well do the colors of its 

 body match those of its chosen haunts the pale greenish-gray and 

 ashy of the paler rocks arid their lichen coverings, the brown and 

 black of other lichens and the darker hornblende and iron-stained 

 weathered rocky fragments, that it is quite difficult to distin- 

 guish when at rest, and being an extremely alert insect some 

 strategy is required for its capture." 



The known range of saxatile is a limited one, extending from 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut south and southwestward in the 

 mountains to Maryland and Virginia. 



121. SPHARAGEMON PLANUM Morse, 1904a, 13. 



Form and size of 8. Itolli, the body less compressed. General color pur- 

 plish-red in life, fading to dark purplish-brown. Antenna; as in saxatile. 

 Tegmina feebly maculate with fuscous, the usual transverse fuscous bars 

 faint or wanting. Wings as in 8. bolli. Hind femora with two more 

 or less distinct fuscous bars on outer face; inner face yellow with three 

 black bars, the two basal ones broadly connected along the middle and 

 lower margin. Hind tibiae with knees black, bordered behind by a pale 

 ring, apical two-thirds coral-red, the sides sometimes tinged with fuscous 

 near the pale basal annulus. Vertex as in saxatile: foveolse smaller, less 

 distinct, the basal side distinctly margined. Frontal costa with sulcus 

 shorter, more shallow, male, longer and deeper, female, than in corres- 

 ponding sexes of saxatile. Pronotum with median carina of almost equal 

 height throughout; much lower and less arched in both sexes than in 

 saxatile; prozona not constricted nor with its surface rugose as there, the 

 first transverse sulcus almost cutting its crest at basal third; metazona 

 with hind margin obtuse-angled in both sexes; lateral carina; rounded 

 and indistinct on metazona, absent on prozona. Tegmina broader than 

 in saxatile, the dilation at basal third of costal margin more evident. 

 Hind femora reaching tip of abdomen, male, 3 to 4 mm. shorter than ab- 

 domen, female. Length of body, $, 23, 9, 33; of tegmina, $ , 23, $,29; 

 of hind femora, $ , 14, $> , 15.5 mm. 



