SUBFAMILY III. LOCUSTIN.E. 405 



it inhabits thickets of shrubbery., and herbage in and near decid- 

 uous woodlands at high elevations (3,000 to 6,000 feet) and some- 

 times extends its habitat into adjoining fields. Adults begin to 

 appear about the middle of July, but the great majority do not 

 reach maturity until August, and young are still plentiful in 

 September at high elevations." 



Lugger (1898, 188) states that in Minnesota "it is very com- 

 mon, preferring the edges of forests or places overgrown with 

 bushes and vines. The grapevine, especially, is preferred by these 

 locusts, and they soon destroy its foliage by eating big holes in 

 the leaves." 



Somes (1014, 78) records the finding of a female drilling in a 

 piece of dead wood in very much the same way as does Chloealtis 

 conspersa. Two fresh holes, one 8 mm., the other 15 mm. deep, 

 were found in the stick within a space of 3 inches. R. & H. (1916, 

 235) state that the size and color of the locust, and numerous 

 structural features of the cerci, furcula, etc., are variable in the 

 large series in their possession, and conclude that: "It is quite 

 possible that the acquisition of more material from the Mississippi 

 and Missouri valleys will show the desirability of recognizing two 

 races of this species, one a western one to which the name Watch- 

 leyi should be limited, and the other (from the southeastern 

 states) to which typical walsliii with amplcctens as a synonym 

 would be applied." 



190. MELANOPLUS PONDEROSUS" (Scudder), 1875b, 473. 



Size above the average for the genus, large for the group; form very 

 robust. Dull olive to ash-brown; under surface greenish-yellow. Face, 

 lower halves of lateral lobes, metapleura and pale portion of hind femora, 

 clay-yellow. The usual dark postocular stripe faint, reaching to metazona, 

 male, often obsolete, female. Disk of metazona, and dorsal area of tegmina 

 pale brown, the discoidal area often flecked with fuscous. Hind femora 

 with two broad black or brown bands on outer face, three on upper inner 

 face; knees fuscous; tibial groove of under side often pinkish-red. Hind 

 tibiae usually red, often yellow tinged with red, the basal third fuscous 

 with a black basal annulus, followed by a pale one, spines wholly black. 

 Interocular space broad but narrower than frontal costa. Fastigium 

 strongly declivent, shallowly and broadly sulcate, male, almost flat, female. 

 Frontal costa low, very wide, shallowly sulcate at and below the ocellus. 

 Frozona one-fourth, male, or less, female, longer than metazona; median 

 carina very faint on prozona; hind margin broadly obtuse-angulate, more 

 so in male. Tegmina in short-winged form about equal to head and pro- 

 notum together, covering from one-third to slightly more than half the ab- 



"Scudder (loc. cit.) described ponderosus and robustus from the same place and on 

 the same page, the former first. He later (1897, 354) placed ponderosus as a synonym of 

 robustus, but precedence on the page of original description requires that ponderosus be 

 retained and robustus made the synonym. 



