18 Studies in Kansas Insects. 



Melanoplus Stal. 



Body moderately stout, rarely slender, generally feebly compressed, 

 more or less but generally feebly pilose. Head moderately, rarely not 

 at all, prominent, generally but little if any longer than the prozona, 

 unless the latter (as rarely) is distinctly transverse; face almost vertical 

 or a little oblique, its angle with the fastigium rarely less than 75 de- 

 grees; vertex gently tumid; eyes rounded oval, never more, generally less, 

 than half as long again as broad, the anterior margin subtruncate or 

 feebly convex, separated above rather narrowly, at most but little farther 

 apart than the width of the equal or subequal frontal costa; fastigium 

 more or less, sometimes very, declivent, passing insensibly into the frontal 

 costa, always more or less sulcate or with elevated lateral margins gen- 

 erally more deeply sulcate in the male than in the female; frontal costa 

 moderately prominent, generally sulcate below, usually more or less 

 punctate ; antennae slender, of variable length, but never very short, never 

 longer than the hind femora, and rarely if ever more than twice as long 

 as the pronotum, even when this is subtruncate posteriorly. Pronotum 

 generally subcompressed, rarely or never twice as long as the average 

 breadth, generally only half again as long as the average breadth even in 

 the male, the metazona generally more or less flaring, its disk plane and 

 densely punctate, while that of the prozona is more or less, gen- 

 erally slightly, convex, is rarely at all flaring in front or only in the very 

 slightest degree, at most faintly punctate and generally distinctly longer 

 than the metazona; front margin generally truncate or subtruncate, hind 

 margin obtuse-angulate to a greater or less degree, rarely subtruncate; 

 median carina always distinct on the metazona, generally much less so on 

 the prozona, often subobsolete between the sulci and never wholly want- 

 ing; lateral carina typically obsolete, but often indicated by a distinctly 

 abrupt though rounded shoulder, rarely becoming carinate; lateral lobes 

 vertical or subvertical, especially below, often feebly tumid above on the 

 prozona, and generally marked by a piceous postocular band, crossing 

 either the prozona alone or the whole pronotum, not infrequently broken 

 or maculate. Prosternal spine variable, but always prominent; meso- 

 and metastethia together distinctly longer than broad in both sexes, in- 

 terspace between mesosternal lobes generally longer or much longer than 

 broad, never in the least broader than long, even when the sides of the 

 interspace are very divergent posteriorly (male) or generally quadrate 

 but more variable than in the other sex, sometimes as narrow as there 

 but more frequently subtransverse, occasionally in brachypterous forms 

 distinctly transverse, as a general rule wider in the other sex (female), 

 in both always distinctly, generally much, narrower than the lobes them- 

 selves, metasternal lobes generally attingent or subattingent, rarely only 

 approximate (male), or generally approximate or subapproximate, the 

 interspace between them generally narrower than the frontal costa 

 (female) ; metasternum rapidly narrowing posteriorly, so that the por- 

 tion behind the lobes is not, or is hardly more than, half the greatest 

 width of the metasternum, but is more than twice as broad as long. 

 Tegmina always present, but either abbreviate and then lateral, attingent 

 or overlapping, sometimes shorter and sometimes longer than, but gen- 



