OKTHOPTEEA OF INDIANA. 289 



the tall sedges and rushes which grew near the margin of a large 

 pond in the Wabash River bottoms, nine miles below Terre Haute. 

 Its range before that time had been supposed to be a strictly south- 

 ern one, it having been recorded only from Florida and North Caro- 

 lina. Since then it has been found to extend across the southern 

 United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its occurrence in 

 numbers as far north as central Indiana is, therefore, of especial in- 

 terest, and can only be accounted for by the presence of the broad 

 and sheltering valley of the Wabash, within the confines of which 

 it finds a climate and a vegetation congenial to its taste. 



In 1893 and 1894 the insect was still present, though in rapidly 

 decreasing numbers as the pond was partially drained. I was much 

 surprised to find, on May 21, 1893, a fully developed male with soft 

 flabby wings, as though just moulted, though no others of any age 

 were seen on that date. In October, 1902, I again visited the former 

 site of the pond, but found only a vast cornfield, with no signs of 

 this or other rare Orthopiera, which formerly dwelt in numbers in 

 that locality. If still a member of the Indiana fauna, marglnicolUs 

 will probably be found only about the margins of the larger ponds 

 in the lower Wabash Valley. 



At the locality mentioned, marginicollis was never seen on the 

 grass or ground and never hopped when disturbed, but moved with a 

 quick and noiseless flight for 20 or more feet to a stem of sedge or 

 rush, on which it alighted. The instant it grasped the stem, it dodged 

 quickly around to the side opposite the intruder. Then holding the 

 stem firmly with its short front and middle legs, it drew its slender 

 hind femora close up against. the body, and folding the tibiae into 

 position, hugged its support as closely as possible, and remained per- 

 fectly motionless. Its body is almost cylindrical, and being of the 

 same general color as the stalk of the plant on which it rested, it 

 was almost impossible to detect it, unless one saw exactly where it 

 alighted. Eight times out of ten a person, by approaching quietly, 

 could reach his hand about the plant stem and grasp the insect. Its 

 habits excellently illustrated the so-called "protective mimicry" of 

 form and coloring, as it always seemed to choose a cylindrical object, 

 and one similar to its own color before alighting. 



XXXVI. ScHiSTOCERCA Stal (1873). 



Locusts of large size. Vertex with the front sloping downward 

 and passing insensibly into the frontal costa; the lateral carinas low 

 and indistinct, the median carina wanting, the foveolse very small, 



