98 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



SOME. INDIANA ACRIDID^. 



BY W. S. BLAICHLEY, TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA. 

 ( Continued from page 8/, Volume xxiii. ) 



2 2. Melanoplus femur-rubrum, De Geer. The Red-legged Grass- 

 hopper. 



Acrydiuin femur-rubruni, Harris, Ins. Inj., 1862, 174, fig. 80. 

 Caloptenus femur-rubrum, Thos., Syn. Acrid. N. A., 1873, 163. 



Id., Ninth Rep. St. Ent., 111., 1880, 124, 



figs. 22, 23. 

 Riley, Rep. U. S Ent. Comm., I., 1877, 

 50, pi. II. 

 Melanoplus femur-rubrum, Scudd., Proceed. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 XIX., 1878, 284. 



Our most abundant and injurious species found everywhere during the 

 autumn months, but prefers open blue grass pastures and roadsides. 

 Males and females of this species, as well as of the next, were taken in 

 copulation as late as November 22. When disturbed it either hops 

 vigorously to one side or flies swiftly and noiselessly straight ahead for 

 about twenty feet and then suddenly drops to the ground. 



23. Melanoplus atlanis, Riley. The Lesser Grasshopper. 



Caloptefius atlanis, Riley, Rep. U.S. Ent. Comm., I., 1877, 49, pi. II 



Id., U. S. Agr. Rep., 1883, 172, pi. II. 

 Thomas, Ninth Rep. St. Ent., 111., 1880, 124. 



Melanoplus atlanis, Scudd., Proceed. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XIX., 



1878, 285. 



This species is fully half as common as fcmur-i-ubrum, and is found 

 in company with it, the habits of the two being essentially the same. The 

 notched apex of the last abdominal segment of the male of atlanis 

 readily distinguishes that sex from the corresponding one of femur- 

 rubrum, but the females are very similar and more difticult to separate. 

 However, a little practice will enable one to distinguish them, even in the 

 field, by colour characters alone, the abdominal sternites of atlanis being 

 yellow, while those oi femur-rubrum are dark reddish brown. Moreover, 

 the upper outer surface of the posterior femora of the former are banded 

 with three oblique yellowish bands, those o{ femur-rubrum being plain. 



