FIELD NOTES ON VIRGINIA ORTHOPTERA. 



By Henry Fox, 



Assistant Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations, U. S. Bureau of Entomology . 



INTRODUCTION. 



The notes here recorded cover the period between December, 1913, 

 and the close of 1915. During this time the writer was officially 

 stationed at the field laboratory of his division at Charlottesville, 

 where during the season of 1914 an almost continuous record of the 

 local Orthoptera was kept. At intervals of variable duration the 

 writer was away on field work in other parts of the State, the more 

 important trips being to Norfolk and to Monterey, approximately 

 a month bemg spent at each place. In 1915 practically the entire 

 season was spent at Tappahamiock. At all these places Orthoptera 

 were studied as thoroughly as the time that could be spared for the 

 purpose permitted. Fairly extensive collections were made at each 

 of the localities mentioned. These along with smaller collections from 

 a number of additional localities enable us to form at least a pre- 

 limmary idea of the distribution of Orthoptera in relation to the 

 different physiographic subdivisions of the State. 



These as usually given in standard geographic works are five in 

 number. Beguining at the east is the Coastal Plain, locally laiown 

 as "Tidewater Virginia." This is limited on the west by the "fall 

 Ime," beyond which the Piedmont region extends to the Blue Ridge 

 which forms the third provmce. Then follows the Shenandoah or 

 Valley of Virginia, the most fertile province of the State. West 

 of this comes the succession of bold ridges and elevated intermontane 

 valleys constitutmg the Appalachian Mountain province. 



In central and southern Virginia each of these provinces pre- 

 sents certain peculiarities of physiography which apparently mark- 

 edly influence the character of the respective floras and faunas. 

 The greatest contrast is shown between the mountain section along 

 the western border and the lower lands to the east. In the mountain 

 section, as exemplified in Highland and Bath counties, we have the 

 long, roughly parallel ridges and intermontane valleys typical of 

 Appalacliian comitry, with an elevation of from 1,500 to 4,500 feet. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, VoL. 52— No. 2176. 



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