1917.1 NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA 251 



NOTES ON MEXICAN MELANOPLI. 

 (Orthoptera; Acrididse.) 



BY MORGAN HEBARD. 



In preparing a Revision of the Melanopli of North America, north 

 of IMexico, it has been found necessary to consider all of the Mexican 

 material at hand. We have before us the greater portion of the 

 important material, including almost all the types, described by 

 Scudder in his Revision of the Orthopteran Group Melanopli and 

 by Bruner in the Biologia Centrali- Americana; the papers here 

 referred to being the most important single contributions to the 

 knowledge of this group for Mexico. The Philadelphia collections 

 contain other types and important series previously recorded from 

 ^Mexico. In addition, we have fortunately been able to assemble 

 nearly all the recently collected Mexican Melanopli and take the 

 present opportunity to record the same. 



It is clear that great numbers of species of the Melanopli, found in 

 the southern portions of the United States, will be found in northern 

 JNIexico, but as yet have not been taken in that country. In fact, the 

 Melanopli assembled show that generally casual collecting has been 

 done, a very few localities fairly well investigated, wdiile vast areas 

 still remain virtually unknown for this group. The last condition 

 is particularly true for all the regions of Mexico adjacent to the 

 United States. We would hesitate to report on collections so evi- 

 dently incomplete were it not necessary to point out the considerable 

 synonymy proven by the series at hand. 



Five genera and ten species are shown to be synonymic in the 

 present paper. A single new species is described. Four hundred 

 and thirty-nine specimens, representing fourteen genera and thirty- 

 six species, are here considered. 



The superficial character of Scudder 's Revision is best shown by 

 the array of errors in his treatment of the species of the United States. 

 The errors applicable to Mexican material, for which he erected two 

 generic and six specific synonyms, did not come as a surprise after 

 the other portions of his work had been studied.^ 



1 The new genera and species, described by Scudder in his Revision (December 

 28, 1897), all actuallj^ date from the key which was separately printed in advance, 

 in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, XXXVI, pp. 5 to 35, 

 (April 5, 1897). 

 18 



