80 ORTHOPTEROUS GROUP INSARAE 



dorsal abdominal segment near the caudal margin, and the caudal 

 extremity of the anal field of the tegmina is occasionally marked 

 with a small dark dot. In coloration the insect is one of the most 

 immaculate of the genus. 



Distribution. — The present species is known to range from 

 Caliente and Las Vegas in southern Nevada, southward along the 

 Colorado River to Yuma, Arizona, and westward over the Colorado 

 Desert of southern California as far as Indio. The present geo- 

 graphic race is found to merge with true elegans in the country about 

 Phoenix, Arizona, and the eastern limit of the distribution of typical 

 elegans consuetipes is undoubtedly to be found in the first low divides 

 east of the Colorado River in Arizona. 



Biological Notes. — This geographic race was found in the low 

 river bottom at Colorado, California, on Arrow-wood (Pluchea 

 sericea); constant beating during an entire morning secured the 

 series here recorded. One specimen was taken across the Colorado 

 River at this point in the town of Yuma, Arizona, attracted there 

 to light at night. At Las Vegas, Nevada, the species was first 

 heard stridulating in a thick mesquite tree some twenty feet in 

 height after darkness had fallen; very many individuals were heard 

 in this tree but, owing to the height at which most of the insects 

 were perched and the thorns, very few could be taken, and these 

 only because they were singularly unafraid. Each specimen taken 

 rested quietly while the branch upon which it was perched was 

 slowly pulled downward and the insect was thereby brought 

 within reach. When, however, an incautious attempt is made at 

 night to capture a specimen, the same unexpected agility is shown 

 as is true of elegans, the insect slipping away into the dark quickly 

 and noiselessly, using both legs and wings in its escape. The fe- 

 male specimen taken at Las Vegas was captured during the day on 

 bare soil near an arroyo. The specimens captured at Caliente, 

 Nevada, were beaten from a dense growth of Chrysothamnus lanceo- 

 latus in the valley bottom; these two individuals were found only 

 after considerable effort. 



This geographic race shares with typical elegans a truly desertico- 

 lous distribution, and, like elegans, it is there found to prefer to live 

 in bushes near water or where water is to be found after rains, the 

 desert vegetation in such situations showing this fact by being 

 heavier and more luxuriant. 



