210 STUDIES IN AMERICAN TETTIGONIIDAE (oRTHOPTERa) 



Conocephalus nigropleuroides (H. Fox) (PI. XVI, fig. 17; XVII, 16; 



XIX, 1 and 2; XX, 17.) 

 1907. Xiphidion nigropleurum (?) Rehn and Hebard (not Xiphidium nigro- 



pleurum Bruner, 1891), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1907, p. 313. (In 



part.) [Cedar Keys, Florida.^'] 

 1912. Xiphidium nigropleuroides H. Fox,*^ Ent. News, xxiii, p. 116, PI. IX, 



figs. 1 to 5. [Cape May County, New Jersey.] 



Tlie present insect resembles C. spartinae more closely than 

 any other species in the form of the male cerci. The color 

 pattern, though distinctive, shows the nearest similarity to that 

 of C. attenuatus. The shades of color in this insect, particularly 

 striking and brilliant in life, are not found in any other North 

 American species. The species, though decidedly smaller and 

 more slender than spartinae in New Jersey, increases southward 

 in size and robustness to a very decided degree, as does spartinae 

 in size to a considerably less extent; so that in material of the 

 two species from Florida, the present insect is distinctly the larger 

 and more robust of the two. The variation in shape of the 

 ovipositor is far greater in nigropleuroides than in any other 

 American species of the genus. 



The medio-dorsal stripe of head and pronotum is blackish- 

 brown; the face, postocular portion of genae and lateral lobes 

 of pronotum very dark brown, these markings giving the insect 

 a trifasciate appearance. This is greatly intensified by the pale 

 coloration of the intervening portions of head and pronotum, 

 which are cream color. In fresh material the tegmina, limbs 

 and male cerci are ver}^ bi-ight sea green, or grass green in 

 some series, while the distal portion of the male abdomen is bril- 

 liantly marked with orange. In the female this latter color is 

 weaker and occupies a decidedly lesser area. The brightest colors 

 in this insect are unusually hard to preserve, only traces of the 

 same remaining in the majority of dried specimens before us. 



Lateral lobes of pronotum with cephalic margin broadly con- 

 vex to the ventro-caudal angle, with ventro-cephalic angle weakly 

 defined and ventral margin often irregular and slightly concave 

 before the ventro-caudal angle which is broadly rounded, angu- 



'•''^ The authors' record of a single specimen of this species from Gainesville, 

 Florida, is here corrected as it is due to a mistake in labelling, the specimen 

 having been taken at Cedar Keys, Florida, the day previous. 



•'■-Single type selected by H. P'ox, Ent. News, xxiii, p. 232, (1912). 



