1892.] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



33 



Springs, I found that most of the larvae, which had not ceased 

 feeding when I left and which I had tied out in bags on their 

 food-plants, had been cut off and destroyed by a crazy Indian, 

 called " Loco" by the children of the valley. This made a rather 

 disastrous ending to an otherwise quite successful collecting 

 season. 



-o- 



ON THE SPECIES OF OECANTHUS Sen. 

 By CHAS. A. HART, Champaign, 111. 



Although the snowy, or tree cricket is commonly referred to 

 .as (Ecanthus niveus, there are three or four species quite com- 

 mon and widely distributed, one of which, CE. fascialus, is in 

 this State (Illinois) more abundant than niveus. I have just had 

 occasion to examine a large series of specimens in the collection 

 of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History including all 

 the species yet recorded from Illinois. After a fairly satisfactory 

 assortment of the specimens with the aid of the characters indi- 

 cated by Prof. Jerome McNeill in " Psyche," vol. vi, p. 6, I noted 



that the coloration of the antennae 

 in each species had a perfectly dis- 

 tinct and invariable pattern of its 

 own in all specimens examined. 

 This character is not affected by 

 sex, and seems to be the most re- 

 liable and ready means of separa- 

 ting the species. Some of these 

 changes of pattern were noticed 

 by Dr. Fitch in his description of 

 CEcanthus niveus (Third Report 

 on Insects of N. Y. p. 95) as char- 

 acterizing varieties of that spcri<-, 

 but the specific identity of these 

 forms seems now wll established. 

 CE. bif>nnctiifns De G. has the 

 apex of the- scape prolonged be- 



[EXPLANATION OF cur.J 

 Basal joints of antenna; of O-.canthiis, 

 under surface. (The difference in the su- 

 tures is due to the changing appearance neat h forming an acute blackish 

 of the sutural membrane in different po- 

 sitions of the antennae) i and z, fZ./oj- tooth. The lore \\ings are CO 



ciatHS ; 3, CE. bipunctatus ; 4, CE. niveus: 

 5, CE. angustipennis ; 6, CE. latipennis. 



jointly marked with a fuSGOUS spot 

 near middle, and .1 lartM- basal spot. 

 CE. fascia/us Fitch, presents an extraordinary range in depth 



