434 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



size, narrower pronotum, more uniform shining black color, shorter 

 ovipositor, and the shape, and position when at rest, of the female 

 tegmina. The reticulation of the dorsal field of these tegmina is 

 more noticeable in americanus than in pennsylv aniens, the main di- 

 agonal nerves being closer together and the cross-nervules more ele- 

 vated and prominent. Americanus reaches malurity in the spring 

 about a fortnight the sooner. 



Americanus has been taken in Crawford, Posey, Vigo.^Putnam, Ma- 

 rion, Marshall, Wells and Lake counties, and ])robably occurs through- 

 out the State. It is here the first species of Gryllus to become ma- 

 ture in the spring, the note of the male — the first Ortliopteran song 

 of the season — having been heard on a number of occasions in the 

 central counties as early as May 5th. The young of this species, as 

 well as of G. pennsylvanicus, survive the winter as nymph?. In Sep- 

 tember and October, after passing the second or third moult, they 

 seek the shelter of loose bark on log or stuni]), or crawl bi-neath 

 chunk or rail where they form for themselves small, inverted cone- 

 shaped burrows in the earth, in which they abide until spring. Those 

 which attempt to pass the winter with only a shelter of bark abovL 

 them almost always succumb to the changing temperatures of that 

 season, but those which choose more wisely a burrowing place be- 

 neath some half buried log or chunk for the most part survive. Thb 

 temperature of their hibernaculum is much more equable, and the 

 insects becoming sluggish in late autumn remain so until called into 

 new activity by the sunshine of spring, unless, meanwhile, they fall 

 a prey to some shrew mouse or other active winter insectivorous 

 mammal. They emerge from their hiding places about April 1st. 

 and after changing their garb two or three times, reach the ni:iting 

 stage in early May, when the males begin to greet the passer-liy with 

 their merry chirp. 



Neither this species nor pennsylvanicus are social crickets. Some- 

 times two or three of the young have adjacent burrows beneath the 

 same chunk, but more often both they and the adults are solitary. 

 The eggs are laid in June and July, and the newly hatched young 

 are to be found in numbers during July and August. 



134. Gryllus arenaoeus sp. nov. The Sand-Loving Cricket. 



Body very slender, of medium length. Head, black, but little, if 

 any, wider than pronotum, the vertex prominent; the cheeks and 

 palpi reddish brown. Pronotum black; its length contained in its 

 width 1.43 times, the fore and hind margins truncate, very narrowly 

 edged with reddish brown; the median impressed line visible only 



