SUBFAMILY III. LOCUSTIN^B. 333 



series at baud, and are undoubtedly of sufficient importance to 

 retain it as a valid species, especially if characters of less impor- 

 tance are held sufficient to separate other species of the genus. 



The range of H. pratensis is a wide one, extending from Indi- 

 ana and Florida, east of the Mississippi River, north and west to 

 Minnesota, Washington and California, and southwest to Texas 

 and Orizaba, Mexico. Hart records it from several localities in 

 Illinois, principally from swales among the sand ridges of the 

 northwestern portion. It is not recorded from Canada and ap- 

 pears to be scarce in Minnesota where, as in northwestern Indi- 

 ana, it is found associated with Melanoplus angustipennis 

 (Dodge.) 



145a. HESPEKOTETTIX PBATENSIS GEMMICULA Hebard, 1918, 158. Little 



Gem Locust. 



"Male Size small for the genus, form slender. Medio-longitudinal 

 lorsal band of pronotum not solidly pink, the median portion distinctly 

 paler than the margins. Dark bar of prozonal lateral lobes solid in col 

 oration, the ventral border of this bar white and about equally broad. 

 Tegmina and wings fully developed, extending nearly to apices of caudal 

 femora, rarely only to apex of abdomen. Tegmina distinctively colored; 

 dorsal and lateral fields green except for a broad longitudinal humeral 

 band of pink. Genitalia of the same general type as in pratensis and 

 brevipennis, cerci alone differing in being narrow and of subequal width 

 in distal half, moderately incurved in this portion with apex sharply 

 rounded. Prosternal spine shorter and stouter than in brevipennis, taper 

 ing more rapidly in distal portion to the sharply rounded apex. Caudal 

 femora green, the pregenicular pinkish annulus distinct; dorsal surface 

 pale green with two weak but distinct broad transverse bands of darker 

 green, and showing no trace of pink along the external margin as in 

 brevipennis; external surface green, never washed with pink as in brev- 

 ipennis. Length of body, $, 14.515.5, $, 16.823.3; of pronotum, $, 

 3.64.1, $. 4.15.7; of tegmina, <J , 9.713, 9, 11.415.5; of hind fe- 

 mora, $, 8.810.4, $, 10.212.8 mm." (Hebard.) 



Big Bayou, near Pensacola and Carrabelle, Fla., Aug. 28 

 Sept. 2 ( Hebard) . The above are the salient points of the original 

 description. The dried specimens at Philadelphia show only a 

 faint trace of the dark bands on dorsal face of hind femora. The 

 hind margin of metazona is obtusely angled as in pratensis, and 

 the length of tegmina much as there. The size and color, are, 

 however, more nearly those of brevipennis, the maximum length of 

 (/eiiunic/ila male, being the same as the minimum of male brevi- 

 IH-HH'IX, while the length of the females of the two species are ap- 

 proximately equal. 



I regard gemmicula, therefore, as only a small color variety of 

 pratensis, differing slightly in form of cerci and prosternal spine. 



