THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 75 



A FEW NOTES ON N. AMERICAN ACRIDII. 



BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



I have long had upon my desk a partly completed revision of the 

 Calliptenoid series of N. American Acridians. The task I have under- 

 taken in the study of our fossil insects has hitherto prevented its com- 

 pletion ; and as it bids fair to be long delayed, the following notes are 

 published for the assistance of students of that special group, which is 

 remarkably developed in the United States, from whence I have about one 

 hundred species, while Europe scarcely possesses a dozen. 



In a short paper on dimorphism in western Acridians,* I called 

 attention to the long and short-winged forms in the species of this group. 

 A few examples may be given : thus Pezotettix plagosus Scudd. and Calop 

 tenus Tumbulli Thorn- are to be referred to the same species ; Pezotettix 

 abditum Dodge and Caloptenus Junius Dodge seem to belong together ;t 

 the same may be said of Pezotettix nigrescens Scudd. and Melanoplus 

 clypeatus (Caloptenus clypeatus Scudd.) ; Pezotettix Scudderi Uhler resem- 

 bles Melanoplus glaucipes Scudd. at -a further remove ; while not only is 

 Pezotettix enigma Scudd. apparently merely a short-winged form of Melano- 

 plus eollaris Scudd., but Pezotettix jucunda Scudd. is perhaps only an 

 impoverished form of the same, with still shorter tegmina. 



It is rather remarkable that aside from the above, very few of our 

 species have been twice named. A few synonyms, however, have occurred 

 to me in addition to some already published. Pezotettix fiavoannulatus 

 La Munyon, 1877, is Pezotettix picta Thomas, 1870 ; Pezotettix borealis 

 Scudd, 1862, is Pezotettix septentrionalis Sauss., 186 1 ; Pezotettix tellustris 

 Scudd., 1877, is Pezotettix Dawsoni Scudd., 1875 ; Pezotettix minutipennis 

 Thom. (Dec), 1876, is Pezotettix gracilis Bruner (July) 1876; Pezotettix 

 viola Thom. has been in my collection for years under the MSS. name P. 

 affiliatus Uhl.; but Mr. Thomas's is the only published name. 



Finally Pezotettix obesa Thom. must form the type of a new genus, fon 

 which the name of Bradynotes is proposed. It is most nearly allied 



* Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xix., 336. 



t Unless my memory is at fault, Mr. Dodge has independently reached the same 

 conclusion concerning these two forms. 



