MORGAN HEBARD 391 



Melanoplus olamentke'^ new species (Plate XVII, fig II.) 



This species is a memlwr of the Lepidus Group, to which we 

 refer Scudder's two Californian species, lepidus and ablutn.s. It 

 is the least speciahzed of the three, showing nearest agreement 

 with the Sierran lepidus. 



Compared with males of that species, males of olatnentke differ 

 in the strength of the median carina of the pronotal disk which 

 is heavy on the prozona, the more evenly rovmded tegminal 

 apices, the shorter and heavier caudal femora, the more simple 

 male supra-anal plate, the narrower distal portion of the male 

 cerci and in the male subgenital plate being much shorter and 

 not produced meso-distad. 



Type. — c?' ; Southern Sonoma County, California. December 

 4, 1910. (J. A. Kusche.) [Hebard Collection, Type no. 556.] 

 ■ Size and form medium, as in lepidus. Head as in lepidus, vertex little 

 produced, sulcus of vertex and frontal costa moderately deeji, interrupted 

 briefly between lateral ocelli. Eye as in lepidus, large, over twice as long as 

 infra-ocular sulcus. Pronotum with medio-longitudinal carina strongly 

 developed on metazona and on prozona to first transverse sulcus, transverse 

 sulci weak, caudal margin of pronotal disk weakly obtuse-angulate produced. 

 Prosternal spine as in lepidus, elongate conical with rounded apex. Tcg- 

 mina shorter than pronotum, slightly overlapping, broad oval and differing 

 from lepidus in having the apices more evenly rounded, showing no trace of 

 the sublanceolate condition normal in that species. Furcula shorter than in 

 lepidus, represented by a pair of minute rounded projections about as long 

 as broad. Supra-anal plate shield-shaped, medio-longitudinal sulcus well 

 developed with marginal carina on each side strongly defined in i)roximal 

 two-thirds, disto-lateral carinae short, not strongly developed, not following 

 the trend of the lateral margins, these latter simple, not specialized opposite 

 cereal bases. Cerci slightly over twice as long as proximal width, ventral 

 margin nearly straight, dorsal margin strongly though broadly concave 

 mesad, thence strongly though broadly convex to the a])ex, which is situated 

 ventrad at the juncture of this margin with the ventral margin, the cercus 

 as a result with median portion slightly over half as wide as proximal portion 

 and distal portion slightly wider than median ijortion. Subgenital plate 

 less ample than in lepidus and not produced, median width equal to lateral 

 width, free margin not raised mesad but showing a transverse thickening 

 in that section. 



'-^The division of the Mociuelumnan Indians which once inhabited the 

 region from which this species is knc^v^l. 



TR.A.NS. AM. ENT. SOC, XLVI. 



