442 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
is an artful dodger, and adept in all kinds of tumbling and vault- 
ing. While usually common wherever there is a thick and suc- 
culent growth of herbage, it is especially plentiful in the tall 
growth of grasses and sedges in moist meadows and salt-marshes, 
along ditches, brooksides, etc. In favorable stations it is a not 
uncommon experience to find, after a few sweeps, a couple of 
dozen examples in the net; and the total population of such an 
area is almost beyond computation or belief. 
The season during which adults may be found is probably 
the longest of any of our Locusts: specimens are recorded from 
June 24 to November 17. It is also one of the most thoroughly 
distributed of our species in the field, and can probably be found 
in every township in New England where there is a swampy area 
of some extent. 
THE SEDGE-LOCUSTS, MECOSTETHUS. 
Our three species of Sedge-locusts, referred variously at times 
to Arcyptera, Steiheophyma, and Mecostethus, resemble each other 
closely and have by some been thought to represent but one. 
There can be no question, however, on the part of those who have 
studied examples of all three that Scudder discriminated them 
with perfect accuracy, and that they are entirely distinct. 
These Locusts are above the medium size, and present an 
unusually smooth, shining surface correlated with their life in 
moist places. 
The vertex is prominent, a little descending. The mid-carina 
of the pronotum is well developed, narrow and sharp; the 
lateral carinae much less distinct. The prosternum projects 
into a low, pyramidal tubercle. The tegmina are long, and 
rather wide apically, with prominent intercalary vein and venules, 
toothed or roughened in the male. The subgenital plate of the 
male is conical and acutely tipped; and the valves of the ovipos- 
itor of the female are much exposed. 
Striped Sedge-locust. 
Mecostethus lineatus (Scudder). 
Plate 11, fig. 9; Plate 20, fig. 21-23. 
Arcyptera lineata Scudder, Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, p. 4G2 (1862) . 
Stetheophyma lineata Fernald, Orth. N. E., p. 38 (1888). 
{ 
