248 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
marsh Grasshopper {Conocephalus spartinae) and the Dusky- 
faced Grasshopper (Orchelimum concinnum) also exhibit, besides 
the green form, another of dingy brown. The significance of this 
coloring in association with a salt-marsh habitat, whether phys- 
iological or chemical, remains to be learned. 
Whatever the biological significance of the color, coloration, 
and markings of our Orthoptera may be, it is certain that in 
many of our species of Locusts it is very variable, so much so as to 
be practically worthless as a diagnostic character. Sometimes 
it seems to be connected with the local hue of the background, 
yet often it is entirely independent of it. Not only are two 
typical color phases (brown and green) exhibited by the Spotted- 
winged and Pasture Locusts (Orphulella pelidna and 0. speciosa), 
but both show much difference in intensity of hue and these 
colors are encroached upon to various degrees by black marldngs, 
while a conspicuous rose-tinted variation combines with either. 
The result is that rose-red, rusty, brown, green, and black pat- 
terns make an almost endless number of color varieties. The 
Marbled Locust (Scirtetica marmorata) in its pale phase is green- 
ish white mottled with black; the larger proportion of individuals, 
however, are more or less suffused and rather heavily marked with 
hematite red, a peculiar tint exactly matching the soft dull hue 
of weathered pitch-pine bark, which is an abundant material in 
the usual habitat of the insect on pine-clad sandy barrens. 
Occasionally this hue deepens to a rich wine red. The coloration 
of this insect thus unites in varying proportions the hues of its 
backgrounds when at rest, — the pale tints of the exposed rain- 
washed sand and greenish white Cladonia lichens, and the dark 
hues of pine bark and decaying fragments of wood, — and renders it 
inconspicuous. Much the same variety of coloring is presented 
by a Locust of widely different structure but often inhabiting the 
same situations — Melanoplus fasciatus. 
Black, yellow, and reddish phases are noticeable in the Carolina 
Locust and in lesser degree in the Two-striped Locust. These 
occur apparently irrespective of environmental color and are due 
to varying proportions of pigment of these colors. The body of 
the Rusty or Leather-colored Locust varies widely in the same 
locality from a yellowish or olive green to the normal rusty red of 
the tegmina. The dorsal region of the head and pronotum of 
