March, 1904. J Caudell : The Genus Cyphoderris. 51 



beyond the thorax and slightly overlapping ; the wings of the same 

 development and shape as the elytra, being about as broad as long and 

 nearly round. Those specimens with minute, widely separated elytra 

 almost hidden beneath the thorax I have considered as nymphs, 

 although some are fully as large as the single undoubted adult before 

 me. These supposedly immature forms differ from the adult in having 

 undeveloped wings and the legs are usually shorter, the posterior 

 femora of even the larger specimens being in some cases scarcely more 

 than 8 mm. in length. It is possible that this species is in the midst 

 of the evolutionary process of becoming apterous, as indicated by the 

 aborted under wings of the male. In this case the female with more 

 fully developed wings may be a case of reversion to the ancestral type, 

 in which case the supposedly immature forms may really be adults. 

 Further material and study is needed to settle this point. I have seen 

 no immature male specimens. One of the immature female specimens 

 from Pullman, Washington, is wholly shining bronze black above on 

 head, thorax and abdomen. 



The following measurements are made from specimens before me. 



Entire length, head to tip of abdomen, male, 21 mm., female 22 

 mm.; thorax, male, 8-9 mm., female, 8 mm.; posterior femora, male, 

 8.5-9 ^rii-j female, 10 mm.; elytra beyond pronotum, male, 7.5-8.5 

 mm., female, 2.5 mm. 



The type specimens, two males from Oregon, are now in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass. 



This species, though for a long time considered a rare insect, the 

 female insect being unknown till 1901, has now been found in injurious 

 abundance in Idaho, eating off the fruit buds of peach and cherry 

 trees. Mr. Louis W. Turley has given a most interesting account of 

 this insect. Can. Ent., xxxiii, 246-268 (1901). The following notes 

 are taken from this account, which embodies nearly all that is known 

 of the natural habits of the species. The writer found the males in 

 considerable numbers in a pasture near Moscow, Idaho, where they 

 were sitting on posts, grass stems and other objects at dusk. Here 

 they sat, several inches to a foot above ground, with the head down, 

 and stridulated with their short broad wings. The inverted position 

 seemed to be assumed to facilitate escape when disturbed, though the 

 writer states that they crawl slowly down when disturbed, though one 

 would naturally expect them to drop suddenly to the ground in such 

 a case. The notes are said to resemble those of the tree cricket. 



