414 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW- YORK 



GKAPE. LEAVES. 



132. Striped flower cricket, (Ecanthus fasciatus, Degeer. 



A slender white cricket very similar to the preceding, but hav- 

 ing three blackish stripes upon the thorax, the antennae, abdomen 

 and legs being also black or dark brown, and the thorax narrowed 

 anteriorly. 



This is almost as common as the foregoing, in the State of New- 

 York, and the two are often met with associated together upon 

 the same shrubbery. And it is this insect which Dr. Harris 

 describes as being the female of the preceding species. He evi- 

 dently was unacquainted with the work of Degeer and the cha- 

 racters he assigns to these insects, or he would have been aware of 

 his error, the marks by which this species is distinguished being 

 so plain and so explicitly stated by that author. And the number of 

 specimens which he had for inspection must have been quite limited 

 or he would have been aware of the fact that females occur which 

 are of the same white color throughout as the males of iiiveus^ and 

 that males occur which have the three black stripes on the thorax 

 and the other marks which he supposes are found in females only. 

 And though in their size and form these two insects are most 

 intimately related to each other, when we come to submit them 

 to a careful inspection differences may be detected which, in addi- 

 tion to their colors, serve to assure us that they are really distinct 

 species. Thus, the thorax here is plainly narrowed anteriorly, 

 instead of having its opposite sides parallel with each other. The 

 thin foliaceous edge at its lower margin on each side here hangs 

 perpendicularly downward instead of being curved slightly out- 

 ward. The furrow along its middle, between the centre and the 

 hind edge, is here more deeply impressed, as is also the curved 

 line upon each side of this furrow. In the wing covers of the 

 male, from the convex side of the curved vein which we have 

 named the fiddle-bow three veins are given off which are parallel 

 and equidistant from each other, and end in a vein which runs 

 lengthwise of the wing, these three veins obviously serving as 

 braces to hold the fiddle-bow tense and firm for the important 

 office belonging to it. In the present species these three veins are 

 straight and run directly into the longitudinal vein at their outer 

 ends, whilst in niveus they curve backwards and enter the longi- 

 tudinal vein very obliquely. The feelers also are rather more 



