212 



this griseus, the brown color of Gryllus personatus and Udeop- 

 sylla robusta, and the remarkable approximation to sand-color 

 effects in Trimerotropis citrina, Spharagemon wyomingianum, and 

 other Acridiidce. 



The subject of the protective colorations of the phytophi- 

 lous species is an extensive one, and not closely related to the 

 subject under discussion. The phytophilous, yet undoubtedly 

 xerophilous, green grasshoppers of the genera Campy lacantha 

 and Hesperotettix provoke additional questions as to the envi- 

 ronmental factors which limit them to dry soils. Corimelcena 

 ciliata, both phytocolous and arenicolous, unless protected by 

 the usual "bug" odor or flavor, may escape its enemies by what 

 Dr. Forbes has called a resemblance to nothing in particular; 

 and apparently the same is true of the Tenebrionidce. It is per- 

 haps going a little too far, however, to tell here that I was 

 once, for a moment, completely deceived on seeing Rkyssematus 

 lineaticollis lying in the axil of a milkweed leaf alongside a rail- 

 road track, by its exact resemblance to a locomotive cinder. 



A type of coloration quite opposed to mimicry is that of 

 the non-sympathetic, or contrasting and conspicuous, colors. 

 Examples of this type are seen in the bright colors — presuma- 

 bly serving as a warning— of certain exposed sand insects oth- 

 erwise protected, such as the stinging Mutillidm and Betnbecidce, 

 the bug Perillus circumcinctus, and some of the tiger-beetles 

 (Cicindelidce) . A curious fact was noted with regard to the 

 large female mutillid, Sphcerophthalma occidentalis. This is 

 not rare in southern Illinois and is of the usual bright scarlet 

 color. So also is an example from Meredosia; but the six indi- 

 viduals captured near Havana w r ere all of a faded golden-ochre- 

 ous tint when taken. The latter locality is about its northern 

 limit, and we have never taken it elsewhere in central Illinois. 



Other species are apparently colored in imitation of the 

 preceding class. Phidippus insolens, a spider of the blow-sand, 

 is colored and shaped in close imitation of a mutillid. Laphys- 

 tia 6-fasciata, a fly of the blowout pits, resembles a sand wasp 

 {Microbembex monodonta) of the same situations both in actions 

 and appearance. Volucella fasciata, a very prettily striped syr- 



