230 THE entomologist's eecord. 



The Tettigidae of North America '. 



By MALCOLM BUEE, B.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



In a great work, published twenty years ago, Brunner von 

 Wattenwy] remarked, apropos of the Tetthiidae, that a very great 

 variety of exotic forms was known, but that the family was in a 

 chaotic state, and a monograph was badly needed. Writing ten years 

 later, the same author, referring to the monograph of Bolivar, which 

 had appeared in the meantime, said that it left nothing to be desired. 

 The immiense progress made by Bolivar may be realised when we 

 compare the number of species known to Still in 1873 ; the Swedish 

 orthopterist only knew seventeen, from every part of the world, but 

 Bolivar describes no less than two hundred and twenty-one. But the 

 Spanish naturalist had but a poor collection of North American forms 

 before him, and was only familiar with a small percentage of the 

 species occurring in the Nearctic Region, and so. through inadequate 

 material, he was unable to deal thoroughly with the Tettii/idae of that 

 part of the world. But an occasional contributor to this magazine 

 has recently given us the results of nine years devoted to this 

 interesting family, and his work deals with ninety species, distributed 

 through twenty-one genera, which form the Tettigid fauna of North 

 America. 



The book is beautifully got up and extremely well illustrated, and, 

 what is perhaps even more important, deals not only with the purely 

 systematic arrangement, but gives a large amount of information 

 concerning the bionomics of these interesting little grasshoppers. 



The author, in giving an account of the various names applied to 

 the group, does not follow Kirby and Kirkaldy in adopthig Acri/diiiui 

 (Geoffroy, 1762), nor Ijidla (Linne, 1764), nor yet Tutrix (Latreille,f 

 1804), but the more familiar and generally adopted Tetti.v, as written 

 by Charpentier in 1841. Dr. Hancock adopts the division of Bolivar 

 into seven sections, of which four are represented in North America, 

 namely, Cladonotinae, Mt'trodnrinae, Tetti'ninoe, and Batrachidinae. 

 The curious Cladonotinae, with their remarkable leaf-life development 

 of the pronotum are I'epresented by seven species, of which all are 

 confined to the West Indies excepting Tjilotcttix siniiatits, Morse, from 

 Nicaragua. Of the Metnidorinar, three species (and three genera) 

 described by Morse, are all from Nicaragua ; it is the typical section, 

 Tettit/inac, however, which is best represented ; there are sixty-four species 

 ranged through eleven genera. The genus Tctti.r, itself, with its nineteen 

 North American species is divided into three groups, the " (/rantdatus 

 group," " ornatiis group," and " arrnofiiis group." The commonest 

 species appears to be Trttiv ornatiix, Harris, to which the original 

 describer himself gave five names, deceived by the remarkable colour 

 variation, a phenomenon which is familiar to all British orthopterists 

 who have collected our common Tctti.r hipiinetatiia, L. ; a note on the 

 habits of this " grouse-locust " is appended to the description ; among 

 eight specimens captured on a single spot, on " sandy soil, where the 

 light vegetable mould was sprinkled with fine gravel," six different 



*The Tettifiidae of Nurtli America, by Joseph Lane Hancock, with seven plates 

 and many text figures by the author, Chicago; published by special grant of Mrs. 

 Frank Logan, 1902. 



* Misspelt by Hancock, Latraille. 



