SUBFAMILY III. LOCUSTI X.K. 419 



sometimes faint on prozona ; tegmina reaching or surpassing tip 

 of abdomen and usually the hind femora, without or usually with 

 very faint spots along the median area; hind tibia? normally red 

 with black spines; prosternal spine erect, cylindrical, usually 

 somewhat appressed, the apex bluntly rounded ; supra-anal plate 

 of male elongate-triangular, usually constricted at middle; fur- 

 cula and cerci variable as to species; subgenital plate broad at 

 base, narrowed to about half the basal width at apex, the apical 

 margin rarely elevated, not notched or tuberculate. 



KEY TO EASTERN SPECIES OF FEMUR-RUBRUM GROUP. 



a. Tegmina always distinctly surpassing the tips of hind femora, male, 

 usually so, female; cerci of male strongly narrowing on basal half, 

 at apical third less than half the width of base; furcula distinctly 

 tapering and widely separated beyond the basal third (PI. IV, fc.) 

 b. Furcula not or scarcely reaching the middle of supra-anal plate; 

 general color darker, the fuscous spots of median area of teg- 

 mina very small and confined to its basal half. 



196. FEMUR-RUBRUM. 



bb. Furcula longer, reaching considerably beyond the middle of supra- 

 anal plate; general color paler, the fuscous spots of median area 

 of tegmina larger and extending throughout its length. 



196a. PROPINQUUS 



aa. Tegmina not or rarely surpassing the hind femora in either sex, often 

 much shorter; cerci not or very feebly narrowing on basal half, at 

 apical third more than half the width of base; furcula feebly taper- 

 ing, parallel and but slightly separated beyond the basal third. 

 (PI. IV, I.) 197. BOREALIS. 



196. MELAXOPLUS FEMUR-RUBRUM (DeGeer), 1773, 498. Red-legged Locust. 



Size medium for the genus, the males slightly the smaller. Reddish- 

 brown or brownish-fuscous above, dull greenish-yellow beneath. Head 

 olive to brownish-yellow, occiput darker with usually a pair of widening 

 fuscous stripes on its sides. Disk of prozona generally darker than the 

 lower half of its lateral lobes; the upper half of these lobes with a broad 

 black bar, often subobsolete in female. Meso- and metapleura in great 

 part, and usually the sides of two basal segments of abdomen, black. 

 Hind femora reddish-brown, the upper half of outer face usually more or 

 less clouded with fuscous, which often forms two oblique cross-bars on 

 upper face; lower and inner faces dull yellow or orange. Hind tibiae deep 

 red, rarely pale yellowish-green, the spines black. Interocular space a 

 fourth wider than, male, or fully twice as wide, female, as first antennal 

 joint; fastigium strongly declivent, distinctly and broadly sulcate, male, 

 feebly so, female. Frontal costa as broad as the interocular area, deeply 

 sulcate at and below the ocellus, male, less so, female. Pronotum feebly 

 expanding on posterior half, the disk flat or nearly so, and rounded into 

 the lateral lobes; hind margin obtuse-angled, more broadly so in female; 

 median carina visible throughout, more distinct on metazona; prozona 

 slightly longer than metazona, male, subequal to it, female. Tegmina nar- 

 row, obviously though very gradually tapering. Extremity of male abdo- 



