466 FAMILY VII. TETTIGOXIID.E. THE KATYDIDS. 



with distinctly narrower tegmina than those from the north, the 

 length of body being but IS and of tegmina but 28 mm., while the 

 greatest width of tegmina is less than 1 mm. more than the length 

 of prouotnm. About Dunedin the nymphs are frequent from Jan. 

 15 to April 10, but the only adults seen were taken on October 31 

 and December 18. There it occurs on grasses and sedges about the 

 borders of low places in pine woods, along railway embankments 

 and in old abandoned fields. It has been recorded from numerous 

 localities throughout Florida, adults having been taken at Miami 

 in January and at LaBelle and Marco in April. 



Until 1898 >S'. tc.rensis was confused by most American collect- 

 ors with X. cnn-icanda, and many of the older records of the lat- 

 ter species refer to the former. The specific name given the spe- 

 cies by Saussure and Pictet was an ill-fitting one, as it ranges 

 from New England and Ontario west to Montana and Wyoming 

 and south to southern Florida and western Texas, being every- 

 where found in suitable habitats within the bounds of the area 

 mentioned. Walker (1904a, 325) states that it is ''quite common in 

 southwestern Ontario, but seems to be confined to that part of the 

 province." R. & H. (1914a, 295) mention it as "one of the very 

 few destructive Phaneropterids found in the United States, doing 

 particular damage to cranberry crops. In New Jersey it has been 

 frequently observed along the salt marshes where, after dark, it 

 would be found locally abundant in areas of Scirpits, resting head 

 down and motionless near the tips of these rushes and frequently 

 beaded with dew. On bright warm afternoons it was observed in 

 the taller vegetation near the border of the salt marshes, where 

 the males were moving actively about emitting their rather pro- 

 longed and harsh stridulation." 



Of the notes of 8. tc.rensis Allard (1911, 30) says: 



"I have heard two distinct methods of stridulation produced at will by 

 this Scudcleria. The usual note heard from Massachusetts to Georgia is a 

 soft sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh, occasionally repeated. This note is produced by a 

 rapid shuffling of the wings very briefly. At other times and much more 

 rarely the call consists of a succession of sharp, keen, distinct rasping notes 

 slowly delivered, zeet-zeet-zeet-zeet. These notes, which are so unlike the 

 usual call, are usually at once answered in a similar manner by another in- 

 dividual elsewhere. One is at first tempted to assign them to some other 

 insect. By creeping carefully toward the musician, the writer has watched 

 this mode of stridulation close at hand. The tegmina are very slowly and 

 deliberately opened and rasped upon each other slowly several times. These 

 notes are really more in keeping with the incisive notes of other Scud- 

 derias and it is evident that they are not accidental. They probably con- 

 vey some definite meaning to other individuals within earshot. $. texensis 



