OETHOPTERA OF INDIANA. 387 



105. Orchelimum nigripes Scudder. The Black-legged Grasshopper. 



Orchelimum nicjripes Scudd., 15 1, XVn, 1875, 459; Id., 15 3, IV, 1875, 

 62; Id., 164, 1879, 12; Id., 168, XXIH, 1892, 73; Id., 188, 

 1900, 74; McNeill, 88, VI, 1891, 25; Id., 90, XXXII, 1900, 

 79, 83; Bl., 7, 1893, 135; Lugg., 84, 1898, 236. 

 Xiphidium nkjripes Redtenb., 1 10, 1891, 188. 



Somewhat smaller than 0. vulgare; the body moderately robust. 

 Pronotum short, the posterior lobe, especially in the male, rather 

 strongly upturned. Tegmina equaling the wings in male, a little 

 shorter in the female, surpassing slightly the hind femora. The 

 shrilling organ of the male is unusually large and prominent with 

 strong crossveins, and behind it the tegmina taper rapidly on both 

 margins, their shape and the size of the tympanum causing the male 

 to appear somewhat peculiar and much more robust than it really is. 

 Hind femora armed on apical half of lower outer carina with one to 

 four small spines. Cerci of male slender, tapering, the apex a little 

 obtuse; the sub-basal tooth long, slender and a little curved. Ovi- 

 positor rather long, broadest in the middle, tapering to a delicate 

 point. The males vary much in size. 



General color green or reddish brown, the former prevailing in the 

 male, the latter in the female. Occiput and disk of pronotum with 

 the usual brown markings. Front and sides of head, and four front 

 femora, reddish yellow. All the tibige and tarsi, together with the 

 apical third of hind femora, black or dark brown at least on the 

 upper side; in one specimen at hand the whole body, except the wing 

 covers and femora, black. 



Measurements: Male — Length of body, 18 mm.; of antennge, 66 

 mm.; of pronotum, 5 mm.; of tegmina, 21 mm.; of hind femora, 16 

 mm,. Female — Length of body, 19 mm.; of tegmina, 23 mm.; of 

 hind femora, 17 mm.; of ovipositor, 9 mm. 



The "black-legged grasshopper" is a lowland species, which has 

 been taken in numbers in Vigo, Putnam, Posey, Starke, Fulton, Lake 

 and Wells counties, and probably occurs in suitable localities 

 throughout the State. It reaches maturity about July 20th, and is 

 usually abundant about the margins of the larger ponds and lakes, 

 where it frequents the tall grasses and especially the stems and 

 leaves of the different species of Polygonum, or smartweed, growing 

 in the shallow water. Examples of the parasitic hairworm (Gordius 

 sp?) have been taken from the abdomens of a number of specimens. 



Nigripes was described from Texas and was first recorded east of 

 Illinois in my former paper. It has been taken by myself at Celina, 

 Ohio, though Scudder gives its range as "Rocky Mountains to the 



