SUBFAMILY III. LOCUSTINJE. 4:>,"> 



, 



30, on the blue grass covered slope of an open woods pasture in 

 Putnam Co. At the other localities only one or two specimens 

 were secured, the earliest date being that of a single, male in Ma- 

 rion Co., on June 1. It frequents bine-grass pastures, roadsides 

 and borders of cultivated fields in upland or sandy regions, and 

 when disturbed flies noiselessly for a short distance. In the field 

 the red-legged form closely resembles ,]/. femur-rubrum and dtlanis 

 in general appearance and is very likely to be confounded with 

 them. It is probably, therefore, more numerous than my observa- 

 tions would denote and perhaps occurs throughout the State. 



This small, trim-bodied locust is the M. minor (Scudd.) of my 

 former work (1903, 322) and of most authors. The name minor, 

 as first pointed out by Caudell (1015), was preoccupied by F. 

 Walker (1870, GOO) and the oldest synonym, M. confiisiis Srudder, 

 therefore takes its place. The known range of M. coitfnsus is a 

 wide one, extending from Maine north and west to Toronto, Ont., 

 Winnipeg, Man., Wyoming and Washington, and south and south- 

 west to Havelock, N. Car., Missouri, New Mexico and Arizona. 

 Morse (1808, 203) says that in New England it is the first member 

 of the genus to reach maturity, adults having been taken on June 

 7. There it is found "most numerous among sweet vernal and 

 blue-grasses in pastures and mowing-lands on gravelly or sandy 

 upland soils. The hind tibia? are very variable, ranging from 

 cherry-red to greenish or blue. The red tibiae are more common 

 among the females (25 33 per cent., males 17 20 per cent.) ; 

 among the males, however, they are frequently glaucous at base 

 and pinkish at tip." In Ohio it has been recorded only from New- 

 ark, and in Michigan only from Douglas Lake and Saginaw Bay. 



Somes (1014, 00) states that in Minnesota the males are nearly 

 all of the red-legged type and that the young appear in August 

 and pass the winter in an advanced stage of development, both 

 these conditions being different from those reported by observers 

 in other States. In Colorado Gillette (1004, 52) reports it as oc- 

 curring only in moderate numbers on the plains and lower foot- 

 hills up to 7,000 feet in the northeastern part of the State, \vhere 

 it matures as early as June 6. Brunei* records it as found over 

 the entire State of Nebraska, and common early in July. About 

 Charlottesville, Va., Fox (1017) found it "the dominant grasshop- 

 per during late May and early June, although rather strictly lim- 

 ited to the higher, drier areas and not occurring in any consider- 

 able numbers on farm lands. Its choice appeared to be for old up- 

 land fields and pastures over-run with coarse grasses (Andropo- 

 gon, Danthonia), etc." 



