MORSE: ORTHOPTERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 247 
Pink Katydids of the genus Amhlycorypha are among the most 
striking of insect freaks. Several examples have been captured, 
from Massachusetts to Indiana, and attempts have been made 
to breed from them, as yet with unsatisfactory results. The pink 
color appears at an early age and persists throughout life. It is 
probably due to a physiological peculiarity of the individual, the 
normal green coloring being acted on chemically by some reagent 
developed in the body of the insect.^ 
Dichromatism, the occurrence of two color phases in the same 
species, is frequent in Locusts and not uncommon in some Grass- 
hoppers. Typical cases are those of the Green-striped and 
Bicolored Locusts, in which both sexes may be either brown of 
varying shades, or green with or without a small amount of 
brown. In the former species green females and brown males are 
the rule, and in some parts of the country green males are said 
to be almost unknown. A possible explanation may be that this 
species matures in April, at the time the face of the fields changes 
from the faded browns and grays of winter to the verdurous 
green of spring-time, that both colors are equally protective, and 
that males usually mature a little earlier than females. There 
would therefore be a tendency for a larger proportion of males to 
be subjected to the influence of brown backgrounds as compared 
with females, and perhaps in time this character would become 
inherited by the male sex. On the contrary, Dr. Whiting's exper- 
iments (see p. 249) seem to indicate that temperature is more 
important than light or humidity in its influence on color. He 
is inclined to think that the color difference in Chortophaga, 
between green and brown at any rate, is strictly genetic and 
physiological, and does not depend upon light or color of environ- 
ment. Another experimenter thinks the case is different in certain 
other genera. The whole matter needs research. The Sword- 
bearer (Neoconocephalus ensiger) and its congeners are frequently 
brown, cases perhaps analogous to that of the pink Katydid, 
though it may be pointed out that brown is equally as protective 
as the normal green. 
The presence of an olivaceous suffusion in both phases of the 
Salt-marsh Locust has already been alluded to. The Salt- 
^ Hancock, J. L. "Pink Katydids and the inheritance of pink coloration." 
Ent. News, vol. 27, p. 70-82, 1916. 
