52 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



ACRIDIUM AMERICANUM. 



In October last, Mr. G. C Anderson, upon one of his visits to me^ 

 enquired what was the largest grasshopper of the country, as he had taken 

 one which had attracted his attention on account of its size. I showed 

 him what we had in the collection of our native species, when he remarked 

 that it was larger and prettier than anything that was there. He said he 

 would bring it up some time. When he did, I was surprised at the strik- 

 ing difference in its appearance from anything I had ever observed. He 

 said I might retain it, which I was very willing to do, and as I could not 

 determine it, I spread its wings and waited till the time of our annual 

 meeting, when Mr. Fletcher at once pronounced it to be Acridium Avieri- 

 catium, and the first reported to be taken in Canada. In his Eighth 

 Missouri Report, Prof C. V. Riley (page 104) thus speaks of it: "It is 

 our largest and most elegant locust, the prevailing colour being dark 

 brown, with a broad pale yellowish line along the middle of the back 

 when the wings are closed. The rest of the body is marked with deep 

 brown, verging to black, with pale reddish-brown, and with whitish or 

 greenish-yellow ; the front wings being prettily mottled, the hind wings 

 very faintly greenish with brown veins, and the hind shanks generally 

 coral-red with black-tipped white spines. The species is quite variable in 

 colour, size and marks, and several of the varieties have been described 

 as distinct species." In another place the Professor remarks : *' Ic has 

 a wide range, hibernates in the winged condition, and differs not only in 

 size and habits from the Rocky Mountain locust, but entomologically is 

 as widely separated from it as a sheep from a cow." I would describe 

 the front wings of the specimen before me as being light brown, semi- 

 transparent and mottled with darker brown ; the hind wings as hyaline^ 

 extremely delicate in texture and beautifully reticulated v/ith dark brown. 

 It measures three and a-half inches in expanse of wing. This species has 

 been reported as causing considerable damage at times on the south side 

 of Lake Erie, from whence probably it has come to us. 



J. x\lston Moffat, London, Ont. 



*,.* The Editor regrets to state that two of his letters to the printers of this Magazine h.ive recently 

 gone astray in the mails. They contained a paper by Mr. Mcdillivray on ' New Hamp^hire I'en- 

 thredinid£E," the second part of Mr. C. F. Haker's " Studies in Siphonaptera," and a review by Prof. 

 Webster of the last volume of Or. AfcCook's "Spiders and their .Spinning Work." 'J'hese articles were 

 intended to have been published in the current number. 



Mailed February 4th. 



