SCUDDER. — NORTH AMERICAN DECTICIN.E, 87 



unusually stout. Abdomen dull luteo-testaceous, faintly iufuscated in 

 blotches laterally ; ovipositor rather strongly curved, not narrowed in 

 the middle more than beyoud, luteo-testaceous, a little infuscated in the 

 apical half, nearly two thirds as long as the hind femora, the denticula- 

 tions blunt, oblique, separated by more than their own height. 



Length of body, 25 mm.; pronotum, 10.5 mm.; breadth of same, 

 6 mm.; length of hind femora, 25.5 mm. ; ovipositor, 16 mm. 



1 9. Monte Diablo, California, August, 1872. 



I have seen another species of Tropizaspis, closely allied to T. stein- 

 dachneri, but easily distinguished by the stout apical spine on the inner 

 margin of the narrower supragenital plates of the male, collected by 

 A. P. Morse on Mt. Wilson, Altadena, California, July 27. The hind 

 legs are long as in T. steindachneri, and the coloring similar. Unfortu- 

 nately the single specimen was badly damaged before opportunity occurred 

 to describe it. 



II. Cacopteris. 



Cacopteris was proposed by me in 1894 (Can. Ent., XXVI. 178, 181; 

 see also Guide N. A. Orth., 1897, 56) as a new genus of Decticiufe for 

 several Pacific coast species, all of which were said to be new and none 

 were at that time described. It was peculiar in that the upper surface 

 of the fore tibiae was sometimes spined and sometimes unarmed on the 

 inner side, this being sometimes the case even within the range of a single 

 species. The species known to me are herewith described, and a table 

 given for their separation. Probably others will be found, as many of 

 these are known by only one or two examples. 



The genus may be characterized as having an unarmed prosternum ; 

 the pronotum smooth, similarly arched in front and behind, with rarely 

 any lateral or median carinas (and when present obscure and generally 

 partial) ; the legs long, the hind femora generally extending well beyond 

 the abdomen ; the tegmina mere pads mostly or quite concealed by the 

 pronotum in the female, small, apically rounded, and scarcely longer than 

 broad in the male; the supraanal plate of male bifid, the cerci generally 

 subcylindrical, often more or less incurved, with an inner median hook 

 generally of considerable size, the subgenital plate apically emarginate 

 with a pair of small and slender styles ; and the ovipositor long and 

 straight or very faintly upcurved. It has somewhat the aspect of the 

 European Antaxius. 



