1912.] 



NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 



265 



Boot Key, Fla., March 14, 1910; 1 9. 



Key West, Fla., January 19, 1904 ; 35 17 d" , 9 9 : March 15-16, 

 1910; 9 d\ 7 9 : November 21, 1911 (Englehardt) ; 1 9 [B. I.]. 



The species Melanoplus paroxyoides™ was described by Scudder 

 from three males and four females taken at Key West and Talla- 

 hassee, Fla., and a male single type from Key West has been se- 

 lected by the present authors. 37 It is hard to understand how this 

 species could have been placed in the genus Melanoplus by a worker 

 familiar with the genus Paroxya. The types 38 show that it is but 

 a geographic race of Paroxya atlantica, so near typical specimens 

 of the latter now before us that we must rely almost wholly on 

 coloration to separate the two forms. 



The series at hand from the southern Keys differs, it is true, from 

 true atlantica in being, as a rule, smaller but somewhat heavier, with 

 proportionately shorter tegmina and more robust caudal femora; 

 moreover, the male cerci are usually longer, more attenuate and 

 roundly spatulate at the apex, while the supra-anal plate is more 

 subtriangulate in outline. 



On the other hand, careful examination of the entire series of 

 eighty-eight specimens from the southern Keys shows that none of 

 these characters are sufficiently constant to be of diagnostic value 

 and that no constant structural differences exist. 



The coloration of the caudal tibiae is, however, in the majority of 

 the specimens from the southern Keys, 

 quite distinctive and a grayish suffusion 

 is frequently noticeable. A large number 

 of individuals have the lateral face of the 

 caudal femora heavily trifasciate with 

 very dark brown, quite a few specimens 

 have these markings very pale, while in 

 others the entire surface is darkly 

 suffused; in every specimen examined, 

 however, the inner half of the dorsal face 

 of the caudal femora is noticeably thrice 



Fig. 19.— C a u d a 1 1 i m b of 

 male Paroxya atlantica 

 paroxyoides, from Key 

 Vaca, Fla. (X 3.) 



spotted with the color which, in the more heavily marked individuals, 



35 These twenty-six specimens from Key West were recorded as P. atlantica 

 by the present authors; these Proceedings, 1907, p. 298. 



36 Proc. U. S. N. M., Vol. XX, p. 331, 1897. 



37 These Proceedings, 1912, p. 86. 



38 Type and two paratypic females from Key West, Fla. (Morrison), in Hebard 

 Collection ex Bruner. 



18 



