78 



Circotettix verruculatiis (Kirby) Sauss. This insect stridulates at will during flight, 

 and is the noisiest of our eastern Acridians. At each turn in its flight, it accompanies 

 the movement with a swoop-like curve, and emits a crackling sound. The sound is like 



kla klu Ula kla kla Ula Ula 



U U U I i/ U y 1/ I 



kla kla k'.a kla kla kla 



L L L hi L L L ^ 



Fig. 54. — Note of Circotettix verruculatus. 



kl or kla (the a having the sound of a in fat), the former at a distance, the latter nearer 

 by ; it is repeated at the rate of about five per second ; just before alighting, it crackles 

 more rapidly and frequently. 



Circotettix carlhigianus (Thorn.). This Acridian is the noisiest of the family known 

 to me. I have had my attention drawn to it by its obstreperous crackle more than a quarter 

 of a mile away. In the arid parts of the west, it has a great fondness for rocky hill sides 

 and the hot vicinity of abrupt clifis in the full exposure to the sun where its clattering 

 rattle is re-echoed from the walls. Its noise is like that of the preceding species vastly 

 intensified, — a bold and defiant challenge to the collector, who will find him nimbler and 

 warier than he cares for on a hot day. 



Circotettix lapidicolus Brun. This is another of the noisy tribe, according to Bruner, 

 who says that " during the hottest, brightest hours of noonday " it " is to be seen and heard 

 jn the air, producing its clattering music, which is anything but soothing." 



Circotettix maculatus Scudd. This species is a remarkable contrast to the others of 

 the genus. It is much the smallest form and is far from noisy. The sound it makes is 

 similar to that of the other species but very much subdued, so as greatly to surprise me 

 when I first captured it at Truckeo, California. I could not at first believe it to be that of 

 a Circotettix. 



I have notes of the stridulation of several other western Acridians, but the species are 

 not yet definitely determined and therefore not mentioned here. 



AN INSECT DESTRUCTIVE TO SQUASH VINES. 



By Samuel H. Scudder. 



During the month of August the leaves of our squash- vines often present a riddled 

 appearance, disclosing the presence of an enemy. If we examine the edges of the holes 

 we shall find the plump, rounded larva of a beetle feeding sometimes on the upper though 

 generally upon the under surface of the leaf. It belongs to the family of Coccinellidce or 

 lady-bugs ; and although, as a general rule, the species of this group are of positive benefit 

 to vegetation in destroying large numbers of plant-lice which blight our fruit and shade 

 trees, a few are herbivorous in nature, and among them the insects of which we are 

 speaking. In the larval state, during which they inflict almost all the injuries of which 

 they are capable, they are of a bright yellow color, covered above with long, branching 

 black thorns, sometimes tipped with white, and arranged in six longitudinal rows. The 

 space between the two middle rows is widened anteriorly by the more lateral insertion of 

 the three first spines. Behind the thorns of the first segment, there is a transverse row 



