SUBFAMILY III. LOCUSTIN^E. 437 



204a. MELAXOPLUS KEELERI LURIDUS (Dodge), 187G, 11. Broad-necked 

 Locust. 



Size medium for both genus and group, the females but little the larger. 

 Above dark grayish-brown varied with fuscous; greenish-yellow beneath. 

 Face dull bluish-gray with mottlings of brownish-purple; occiput and disk 

 of prozona usually fuscous, the metazona paler. Upper half of lateral lobe 

 of prozona with the usual black bar, this often subobsolete in female. 

 Tegmina brownish-fuscous, often grayish in female, with a row of fuscous 

 spots along the discoidal area; rarely immaculate. Hind tibiae bright coral- 

 red, the basal third often paler and with a more or less distinct fuscous 

 ring near the knee; spines black. Interocular area slightly wider than, 

 male, or fully half as wide again, female, as first antennal joint. Fasti- 

 gium moderately sloping, shallowly and broadly sulcate in male, plane in 

 female. Frontal costa of nearly equal width throughout, faintly sulcate at 

 and below the ocellus. Pronotum feebly and regularly widening on pos- 

 terior half, more strongly so in female; median carina distinct on meta- 

 zona, obvious but faint on prozona; hind margin broadly obtuse-angulate, 

 the angle rounded; prozona one-third, male, or but slightly, female, longer 

 than the distinctly punctate metazona. Tegmina reaching tips of hind 

 femora in male, often a little shorter in female. Supra-anal plate with 

 apical third somewhat abruptly and strongly narrowed, the apex rather 

 obtuse; median sulcus broad, usually confined to basal half (sometimes per- 

 current and slightly widening on apical third) its bounding ridges sharp, 

 high and uniting each side near their tips with a short, low transverse 

 ridge. Furcula as described in key and lying obliquely across the bases 

 of the median ridges. Cerci forked as shown in plate IV, o. Subgenital 

 plate as broad as long, its apex usually broadly rounded, sometimes feebly 

 thickened, slightly elevated and subtruncate at middle. Length of body, $ , 

 1720, 9, 1925; of antenna?, $, 8.59, 9, 89.5; of pronotum, $, 5, 

 9, fi; of tegmina, $, 1316, 9, 1417; of hind femora, $, 10 12, 9, 

 1215 mm. 



This compact, dull colored locust occurs in all parts of Indi- 

 ana, frequenting open bine-grass pastures, the borders of gravelly 

 and sandy terraces, prairies, and hillside slopes. Like M. gracilis 

 and .]/. birittatiis it delights, in early autumn, to carry on its 

 courtship among the leaves and branches of the iron weeds. The 

 species begins to reach maturity about July 20, and may be taken 

 until late November. While of about the same length, the females 

 of litridits are much more robust than those of either .!/. fcinur- 

 rti'briiin or M. fitJaiiis, and the tegmina just reach the tip of or are 

 a little shorter than the abdomen, instead of exceeding it as in 

 those species. 



In my former work (1903, 325) the J/. collinus Scudder, whose 

 distribution as given by its author (1807, 348) was limited to the 

 region east of the Mississippi, was first placed as a synonym of 

 M. luridus Dodge, recorded up to that time only from points west 

 of that stream. This placement of col-Jinus has been adopted by 



