376 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Mr. Wheeler published {loc. cif.) his excellent account of the oviposi- 

 tion of this species. From that I quote as follows: "On September 

 8th I observed a female in the act of oviposition. She was perched 

 with her head turned toward the apex of the gall. Slowly and se- 

 dately she thrust her sword-like ovipositor down between the leaves, 

 and, after depositing an egg, as slowly withdrew the organ in order 

 to recommence the same operation, after taking a few steps to one 

 side of where she had been at work. She soon observed me and 

 slipped away without completing her task. The number of eggs 

 found in a gall varies considerably. Sometimes but two or three will 

 be found, more frequently from 50 to 100. In one small gall I 

 counted 170." The egg is cream-colored, very thin, elongate oval in 

 outline, and measures 4x1 mm.* The young emerge about the mid- 

 dle of May and reat-h maturity about iVugust 10th. Long winged 

 forms of this species arc occasionally met with. 



Ensifcrum wfus first described from Illinois, and, as yet, has not 

 l)een recordod east of the Alleghany Mountains. One which was 

 still m tliie nymph stage on October 21st, was found to have a white 

 fiainvorm (Oonh'us sp?) eight and a half inches long in its ab- 

 domen. The development of the nymph had probably been retarded 

 by the presence of the parasite. 



38. XiPHiDiUM NIGROPLEURA Bruner. The Black-sided Grasshopper. 



XiphMmm T,igropleurum Bruner, 2 5, XXHI, 1891, 58; Bl. , 7,1893, 125; 



Lugg., 84, 1898, 241. 

 XiphkUum nigropleum ScMdd., 18 3, XXX, 1898, 184; Id., 188,1900,75. 



A medium sized, rather robust species, easily distinguished from 

 all others of the genus by its peculiar coloration. In Indiana di- 

 morphic forms occur; one having the pronotum, tegmina and legs 

 bright grass green, the other with these parts brownish yellow, the 

 .green wholly absent. Jioth forms have the stripe on the occiput and 

 the sides of the abdomen shining black; the former narrowing in 

 front to the width of the tubercle, and bordered on each side with 

 yellowish white. In the green forms the usual brown stripe on the 

 'disli of pronotum is but faintly defined, in the other it is very evi- 

 dent. 



The tegmina are usually abbreviated, reacliing only four-fifths of 

 tbe length of the abdomen, but an occasional specimen is to be found 

 in which they are fully develoi)cd and then reach beyond the middle 



*"Mr. B. D. Walsh, in the Proc. Ent. Soe. Phil., Ill, 1864, 232, recorded the finding, on 

 numerous occasioni, of the eggs of an OrcfceiiniKni in the turnip-shaped galls of Salix cor- 

 <iata. Their shape and proportional dimensions, as given by him, differ much from thoie 

 ■of X fiisiferum, as they were cylindricAl, .16 to .17 of an inch long, and seven times as long 

 »6 wide. 



