336 FAMILY VI. ACRIDIM3. THE LOCUSTS. 



to Colorado and Montana and south and southwest to Texas and 

 New Mexico. Somes (1914, 71) records a single pair from Mah- 

 tomedi, Minn., and states that in Mnscatine Co., Iowa, just across 

 the river from Illinois, he had taken it in numbers on dry sandy 

 soil. Bruner (1S97, 135) says that spcciosus is quite common 

 over the entire State of Nebraska, but more common southward, 

 where it has been known to occur in sufficient numbers to do some 

 harm to growing crops; while Gillette (1904, 40) states that it 

 occurs throughout eastern Colorado to the foothills, sometimes to 

 a height of 6,000 feet. He gives its native food plants as sunflower 

 (HeliantJuis) and a closely related Composite, Iva xanthifolia 

 Nutt., and adds: "As this grasshopper feeds entirely upon na- 

 tive weeds it cannot be considered of economic importance." 



148. HESPEROTETTIX FLORIDENSIS Morse, 1901b, 130. Florida Purple- 

 striped Locust. 



Smaller and more slender than H. speciosus. Grass-green, yellowish 

 beneath, drying to dull yellow; front faces of fore and middle femora and 

 upper outer face of hind femora usually, and median carina of pronotum 

 rarely, purplish-red; hind tibiae bluish-green, the spines tipped with black. 

 Pronotum more finely rugulose, its median carina lower, hind margin 

 broadly rounded. Tegmina as described in key. Supra-anal plate of 

 male, with median basal groove oblong, ending at middle; a cross carina 

 near middle of plate dividing its upper surface into four concavities. 

 Furcula very short, narrow, widely divergent lobes situated one on each 

 base of the median ridges. Cerci more slender than in speciosus, twice as 

 long as their basal width, their tips acute, not incurved. Valves of ovi- 

 positor slender, the dorsal and ventral scoops elongate. Length of body, 

 $, 17.521, 9, 2430; of antennae, $ and $, 810; of tegmina, $, 

 4.5 6, $, 57; of hind femora, $, 11.513, 5, 1516 mm. 



Hastings, Fla., Aug. 22. Known onlv from Florida and Geor- 



~ 7 C? * 



gia, Hastings being the type locality. Elsewhere in Florida it is 

 recorded only from Pablo Beach and San Pablo, Aug. 13 (R. & H., 

 1907), where it was found among grasses in marshy spots in the 

 palmetto scrub and along a railway ditch, and from DeFuniak 

 Springs, Oct. 17 (Davis, 1915). In Georgia it has been taken by 

 R. & H. (1916, 210) at Augusta, Warm Springs, Suwannee Creek 

 and Homerville, July 29 Aug. 28. They state that "it acts in an 

 unusual manner when pursued, hiding on the under side of leaves 

 of low plants with only feet, antennae and eyes showing from 

 above. It was taken among huckleberry, strawberry and other 

 low plants in a sandy scrub oak area and on low open land cov- 

 ered with wire-grass, low bushes and saw palmetto." 



