MORSE: ORTHOPTERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 479 
on its favorite background. The hind femora and tegmina are 
typically distinctly fasciate, the pronotum has an irregular gray 
X-mark bordering the lateral carinae internally, the face is mot- 
tled white and black, and the under parts dark gray. The hind 
tibiae are yellowish white with blackish base and apex and a 
dusky cloud at basal third. Disk of wings very pale yellow, 
bounded externally by a black band of very unequal width, 
much narrowed anteriorly and not continued to anal angle; 
beyond this clear and with the extreme apex clear or dusky. 
Occasionally individuals of a pale yellowish brown or ashy tint 
are seen, but as a rule this is the darkest colored of all our 
Locusts. 
Measurements. 
Total 
Body 
Tegmina 
Hind femora Antenna 
Male 
26.5-32 
21-23 
20.5-25 (usu. 23-24) 
11-11.5 9-11.5 
Female 
30.5-37 
26-30 
24 -28.5 ( " 27-28) 
13-14 11-11.5 mm 
Everyone who has rambled over the rocky pastures or climbed 
the mountains of northern New England in late summer or 
autumn has made the acquaintance of this sprightly creature, 
because of the loud crackling snaps with which it starts up before 
the traveler, and to which one of its popular names is due. 
While it is often seen upon roads and pathways or other areas 
of bare soil, whatever their color, it is characteristically a rock- 
inhabitant and its favorite haunts are exposed ledges on either 
high or low ground. On these it delights to bask in the sunshine, 
crawling about over the weather-beaten and lichen-covered sur- 
faces whose tints its coloring matches, or to hover in the air above 
them, sharply stridulating. 
Its 'song' in flight is the loudest produced by any of our 
Locusts and consists of a series of separate clicks or snaps 
(about five per second) rather than a rattle, and is readily distin- 
guished by this peculiar snapping quality (for notation see 
Scudder's Distrib. Ins. N. H.). 
It is one of the wariest of our Locusts, especially shy and diffi- 
cult to approach during the warmer part of the day, when it 
often flies away to a distance of several rods and circles about, 
frequently returning to the place whence it was startled. Some- 
times it beats up and down in the air, snapping loudly, or poises 
itself, hovering almost motionless, in a dance similar to that of 
