308 FAMILY VI. ACRIDID^E. THE LOCUSTS. 



hind border of eye along the lower edge of pronotum to coxa of hind leg. 

 In fresh specimens this is bordered above by one of darker brown, and 

 sometimes the entire upper surface and antennae are handsomely tinged 

 with purplish or carmine red. In dried specimens the brown and the tips 

 of tegmina become darker. Hind tibiae tinged with bluish, their spines 

 tipped with black. Face, vertex, occiput and pronotum, densely punctured. 

 Tegmina exceeding the abdomen by 3 to 5 mm. Wings transparent, equal 

 to tegmina, male, slightly shorter, female. Other structural characters as 



given above. Length of body, $ , 

 2831, 9, 31 38; of antennae, $, 



8, 9, 6; of pronotum, $, 4.5 5.2, 



9, 5.56.5; of tegmina, $, 2027, 

 9, 2534; of hind femora, $, 12.5- 



Fig. iu. Leptysma margimcolhs (Serv.). ,_. 



(After Comstock.) -14.5, 9, 1618 mm. (Fig. 112.) 



Yigo Co., Ind., May 21 Oct. 11; Gainesville, Little River, 

 Moore Haven, Palm Beach Canal, Cape Sable and Punedin, Fla., 

 Nov. 4 April (TT 7 . Ft. B.}. In Indiana this slender-bodied, grace- 

 ful species has as yet been taken only in Yigo County, where it 

 was first found in October, 1892. It was then quite common on 

 the tall sedges and rushes which grew near the margin of a large 

 pond in the Wabash River bottoms, nine miles below Terre Haute. 

 Its range before that time had been supposed to be a strictly 

 southern one, it having been recorded only from Florida and 

 North Carolina. Its occurrence in numbers as far north as central 

 Indiana was, therefore, of especial interest, and can only be ac- 

 counted for by the presence of the broad and sheltering valley of 

 the Wabash, within the confines of which it finds a climate and 

 a vegetation congenial to its taste. 



In 1893 and 1894 the insect was still present, though in rapidly 

 decreasing numbers, as the pond was partially drained. I was 

 much surprised to find, on May 21, 1893, a fully developed male 

 with soft flabby wings, as though just moulted, though no others 

 of any age were seen on that date. In October, 1917, I again 

 visited the former site of the pond, but found only a vast corn- 

 field, with no signs of this or the other rare Orthoptera, which 

 formerly dwelt in numbers, in that locality. If still a member of 

 the Indiana fauna, niarginicollis will probably be found only about 

 the margins of the larger ponds in the lower Wabash Yalley. 



At the Indiana locality mentioned, as well as in Florida, niar- 

 g'uiicolliN has never been seen on the ground, and has never been 

 noted to leap when disturbed, but always moves with a quick and 

 noiseless flight for 20 or more feet to a stem of grass, sedge or 

 rush, on which it alights. The instant it grasps the stem it dodges 

 quickly around to the side opposite the intruder. Then, holding 



