THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 75 



aceous, nearly impunctate. Legs piceous, femora more or less testaceous. 



Male. — Median and posterior tibiae abruptly bent near the apex (as 

 in the other species of the genus).* Length, 4 mm., male a little smaller. 



Type No. 1390, U. S. N. M. 



Five examples collected (Aug. 31, 1896) by Mr. L. Stejneger on 

 Robberi Island, Okhotsk Sea. 



Intermediate in size between the two previously described species, 

 and very distinct in form and sculpture. 



BOOK NOTICE. 



Scudder's Revision of the Melanopli. 



One of the most important works on Entomology which has been 

 issued by an American author in recent years is that entitled a " Revision 

 of the Orthopteran Group Melanopli (Acridiidae), with special reference to 

 North American Forms," by Samuel Hubbard Scudder. f It is the more 

 important because it deals with a representative North American group 

 of insects whose members, between April and November, leap from our 

 pathway in profusion whether we stroll through open woodland, sunny 

 meadow, or along the roadside, and yet of whose classification and 

 nomenclature the greatest confusion has heretofore existed. It was only 

 another example showing the truth of the old saying that " the common 

 things about us are those of which we are most densely ignorant." 



True, of one of the members of the group, the " Rocky Mountain 

 Locust," Melatioplus spretus (Thos.), more has, perhaps, been written 

 than of any other insect on earth, yet it is but one of 207 of its kind 

 which are described at length by Mr. Scudder. The others are scattered 

 far and wide over the continent of North America, and the descriptions of 

 the 92 species hitherto rightfully known to science were distributed 

 through an almost equal range of literature. No better evidence of the 

 need of the '' Revision " is necessary than to know that after a careful 

 examination of nearly 8,000 specimens, 7,000 of which belonged to the 

 single genus Melanoplus, the author has in it reduced 47 supposed species 

 to synonyms and has established 18 new genera and described for the 

 first time 115 species. 



With a group whose members are so closely akin as those of the 



*Dr. Horn, while describing vi. Fuclisii {^t^m,. Am. Ent. Soc, 1893, Vol. XX., 

 p. 143), evidently did not have the male before him. 



fProc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XX., 1897, No. 1124, pp. 1-421. Plates I.-XXVI. 



