New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 465 



STUDIES ON TREE CRICKETS OF BUSH AND TREE 



FRUITS. 



THE SNOWY TREE CRICKET. 



CEcanthus niveus De Geer 1 



HISTORICAL notes and synonymy. 



This insect is one of the most common tree crickets as well as an 

 important species. While its status has been clearly established in 

 systematic literature, strangely enough it has been long confused 

 in economic writings with nigricornis. Because of its mistaken 

 identity niveus has generally been regarded as the author of serious 

 injuries to raspberry, which really are the work of the latter species. 

 The error arose from the failure of early economic workers to dis- 



A B C ^ D 



Fig. 30. — Basal Antennal Segments of Tree Crickets. 

 a, Niveus; b, angustipennis; c, nigricornis, light form; d, nigricornis, 



dark form. 



tinguish the two crickets. Following his description of niveus 

 Walsh 2 says " that varieties occur in both sexes with legs and antennae 

 almost entirely black " — characters which clearly designate nigri- 

 cornis, while Riley 3 in an early discussion of the same species states 

 " that some specimens have a blackish shade." Later Riley 4 says 

 that he considers fasciatus (nigricornis) a dark and rather well- 

 marked variety of niveus, and in this article makes the same state- 

 ment about nigricornis, which as a matter of fact is synonymous 

 with the above fasciatus. Because the identities of these crickets 

 were not clearly understood, there has been more or less confusion 

 in subsequent literature as to the habits of these insects, which still 

 persists, although to a much less degree than formerly. 



1 First described as Gryttus niveus by De Geer. Memoir pour servir a 1'historie 

 des inseetes. Orthoptera, 3: pp. 399-554. 1773. 



2 Walsh, B. D. Pract. Ent. 2:54. 1867. 



3 Riley, C. V. 1st Rpt. Insects of Mo. 138. 1869. 



« Riley, C. V. Sup. to 9 Rpte. on Insects of Mo. 60-61. 1881. 



30 



