672 FAMILY VIII. (iUYLLID.E. THE CRICKETS. 



they do not wait for darkness before seeking their food, but where 

 ever the grass has been cropped short, whether on shaded hillside 

 or in the full glare of the noonday sun along the beaten roadway, 

 mature specimens may be seen by hundreds during the days of 

 early autumn. Even the tangled masses of sphagnum mosses and 

 other semi-aquatic growth of fen and marsh furnish shelter and 

 food to certain species which, in the ages of the past, have become 

 adapted to a life of such surroundings. 



They appear to be omnivorous, feeding upon carrion, cow dung 

 ;ind grasses with equal avidity. Though small in size, their enor- 

 mous numbers, as well as the fact that they are constant, greedy 

 feeders from the time the eggs hatch in spring until laid low by 

 the hoar frost of autumn, renders them particularly injurious. 

 The aggregate damage which they cause to grass and kindred 

 plants in the course of a single season must be great, and there is 

 liltle doubt but that all species of the genus should be classed 

 among those insects highly destructive to forage plants- 



The small size, nearly uniform color and variability in length 

 of tegmina, wings and ovipositor have led to many synonyms 

 among the species of Ncinobins. Up to 1900 but four species were 

 known from the Eastern States. In that year I described three 

 additional ones from Indiana, and a fourth in 1003. Hart, Walk- 

 er, Caudell and Hebard have 

 since described other forms. 

 Ilebard in his Revision (1913) 

 ] daced several of the previously 

 b known forms as synonyms or 



^V'v' F Ior i' att ? rn f face a , nd varieties, and recognized 12 



head of A emobtus. a, c/risens, b, c, ambit- 



iosus, x 4- (After Hebard.) species and seven races or varie- 



ties from America north of Mexico. In the present work most of 

 his conclusions have been adopted and the following key is based 

 largely upon the one prepared by him. 



KEY TO EASTERN SPECIES OF NEMOBIUS. 



a. Lower pair of apical spurs of hind tibise unequal in length, the inner 

 one much the longer; apex of ovipositor with only the upper margin 

 serrulate, 

 b. Ovipositor straight or nearly so, at least as long as, or barely 



shorter than hind femora (except in the race funeralis.) 

 c. Ovipositor distinctly longer than hind femora (except in races 

 socius and funeralis); black markings of body not scattered 

 in blotches and dashes to give a mottled appearance; wings 

 often fully developed. 



cl. Face below the antennae not a uniform shining piceous; gen- 

 eral color without a grayish suffusion. 



