1916.] NATUKAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 215 



these species they are found to vary in size, width, separation and 

 truncation, though always having their apices rounded. 



Melanoplus decorus Scudder. PI. XIII, figs. 1, 2. 



Wilmington, North Carolina, IX, S, 101 1, I R. & H.), 4S d\ 17 9 . . 

 Winter Park, X. (/.. IX, 7, 1911, (R. & H.), 20 d", 12 9 . 

 Lake Waccamaw, N. C, IX, 8, 1911, (R. & H.), 26 cf, 89. 



The large scries before us shows no striking size or structural 

 variation, adhering closely to the characters given in the above 

 analysis. The four males previously recorded by the authors from 

 Newbern, North Carolina, have the furcula somewiiat broader in 

 varying degrees, and in two specimens considerably less divergent 

 than in the types or in the present series; they are otherwise 

 perfectly typical. 



In coloration individuals range from empire yellow through all 

 shades of that color to medal bronze, the females showing more 

 variation than the males which are usually more brightly colored. 

 A very few melanistic females are before us, in which specimens the 

 general coloration is bone brown much suffused with black. In all 

 of the specimens the post-ocular fuscous stripe is present on the 

 metazona, it is very pronounced in nearly all of the males, but in 

 some specimens of this sex and in numerous females it is much 

 weaker than on the prozona. The blackish coloration of the tubercle 

 of the subgenital plate of the male is confined to its dorsal surface. 

 In life the species is very brilliantly and strikingly colored, but, as 

 in the other species of this delicately colored group, the dried speci- 

 mens have the yellow tones much faded and discolored in the majority 

 of specimens. A great similarity to the brilliantly colored indi- 

 viduals of Paroxya atlantica from this region w T as noted. 



No great size variation is found in the material before us, the 

 extremes in length being as follows: males 17. to 20., females 20.5 to 

 25.3 mm. 



The species was found very locally distributed in low plants and 

 scant grasses about a swampy depression in pine woods in which w-ere 

 a few black gum trees (Winter Park), in heavy undergrowth of almost 

 swampy pine woods (Lake Waccamaw) and common in the wet mucky 

 border of a swampy tract which was covered thickly with grasses, bog 

 plants, such as pitcher-plants and venus' fly-traps, and dotted with 

 low bushes (Wilmington). 



Outside the above localities the species is known only from Pungo 

 Bluff and Newbern, North Carolina. 



