358 FAMILY VI. AORIDID.E. TIIK UxTSTS. 



Indiana east of the Mississippi. Morse (1907, 53) found it a 

 "common campestrian species among the dense grass of the plains 

 and prairies of Oklahoma and northern Texas. The young are 

 often largely dull ivory white in color and present a very singular 

 appearance with their absurdly large heads." Somes (1914, 96) 

 records it from Iowa and Minnesota and says that: 



"It appears at first glance very much like some of the brachypterous 

 forms of Melanoplus. but the compressed body and large head seem to sep- 

 arate it, even in the field. We first took it in Iowa by sweeping tall 

 grasses in an upland meadow; a more careful examination resulted in the 

 discovery of numerous specimens crouching among the stems and dead 

 leaves at the bases of the plants. In Minnesota we have taken it in low 

 marshes, along lakes and at the tops of high gravelly hills sparsely covered 

 with grasses and weeds." 



From these notes it will be seen that /'. )icl>nix<-rnxis may oc- 

 cur in almost any kind of a habitat within its range. The Calop- 

 tciius rolurris Dodge (1877, 112) is a name given the long-winged 

 form, and the Alclanoplits liarrisi Morse (Psyche, XVI, 1909, 12) 

 is a synonym. The latter was described from a single male taken 

 at Needham, Mass., Aug. 23, "among the rank herbage of an aban- 

 doned upland field," and was probably adventive rather than a 

 fixed resident of the region. 



XI. MELAXOPLTJS Stal, 1873, 79. (Gr., "black" -f "armor.") 



Body moderately stout, generally feebly compressed; head not 

 or very rarely prominent, but little if any longer than prozona; 

 face usually almost vertical; eyes rounded-oval, never more than 

 half as long again as broad; interocular space at most but little 

 wider than the frontal costa ; fastigiuin more or less declivent. 

 merging gradually into the frontal costa, always more or less sul- 

 cate or concave, especially so in male; frontal costa of average 

 width and prominence, usually sulcate below the ocellus; antennae 

 slender, filiform, never longer than hind femora and never more 

 than twice as long as pronotum ; disk of pronotum variable in the 

 different Series as described below, its lateral carinre usually ob- 

 solete; lateral lobes of pronotum vertical or nearly so, their upper 

 half usually with a blackish stripe; tegmina always present, in 

 some species being mere oval or lanceolate scales, but little, if any, 

 longer than pronotum, in others fully developed, and then attain- 

 ing or slightly surpassing the tips of hind femora; 54 wings either 

 represented by minute scales or fully developed, transparent, al- 



54 Four of our eastern species, viz., dait'sotii, fasciatns, borealis and ponderosus, are 

 known to be dimorphic in wing length, hut in the short-winged form of the last three the 

 tegmina cover half or more of the abdomen. 



