1920 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



general body colours do not vary much. The usual colour is dark blackish brown 

 with black speckles; the female being larger and lighter in colour. Some specimens 

 are found with a chalky-white pronotum and two or three white bands across the 

 lop of the hind femora. This grasshopper flies with a rather slow zigzag flight 

 and can produce, at will, a slow rattling noise when on the wing. Egg-laying 

 is commenced in the last week in August. 



Gamnula pellucida (Scudder). This species is probably the most destructive 

 grasshopper that we have in British Columbia and has at various times caused very 

 great loss to stockmen and farmers by increasing in enormous numbers and com- 

 pletely destroying crops and range grasses. This year it has been singularly scarce 

 in the Okanagan Valley although it Avas plentiful in northern Washington State, 

 crossing the British Columbia Boundary Line into the Bridesville-Rockcreek section 

 where it did considerable damage. The first adults were seen at Fairview on June 

 ]2th when small swarms were observed in damp places near the Okanagan Eiver 

 where the vegetation was still green. Mating took place during the middle of 

 August and eggs were being laid during the last week in August and doubtless 

 continued until killing frosts occured in the fall. 



Hippiscus neghctus (Thomas). The first specimen of this species was found 

 at Penticton on April 4th when the ground was still frozen in many places, and 

 snow was still present in the bush. This specimen was a nymph and was nearly 

 full grown. On April 26th they were found commonly at Penticton and nearly 

 all were adult. On May 4th at Fairview adults were plentiful. These gra^^shoppers 

 were found in company with Stiraplevm decussafa- and Hippiscus ohscurus and 

 in similar locations, i.e. stony flats and sage-brush lands and a few were seen out 

 on the open bunch-grass plains of the Okanagan Valley. They are not very active 

 and were never observed to stridulate. On May 19th ifemales were seen with their 

 bodies distended Avith eggs, and they w^ere observed ovipositing in late June. 

 These grasshoppers vary much in coloration and size and are similar to H. ohscurus 

 differing from this species by the presence of a distinct tegminal stripe. There 

 are two colour varieties, the first having the disk of the wing red and the hind 

 tibiae yellow, and the other the disk of the wing yellow and the hind tibia,e red. 

 From my observations this year it appears that the first variety, with red wings, 

 a])pears first, preceding the yellow-winged variety by several weeks and is also 

 the first to disappear, and this peculiarity seems to be the case with H. ohscurus 

 also. Adults resulting from the eggs laid in late May and June were beginning 

 to appear during the last week in August and possibly some eggs may be laid in 

 the Fall but the majority of the adults and nymphs seen in the Fall evidently 

 hi})ernate and reappear in the spring. 



Hippiscus ohscurus (Scudder). These grasshoppers appear to have exactly 

 the same life history as Hippiscus neglect us and only differ from them in the 

 absence of the tegminal stripe. They have the two colour varieties, with the red 

 wings and yellow hind tibiae, which, as before, are the first to appear; and those 

 M'ith yellow wings and red hind tibiae, which are later in appearing. They were 

 found with Hippiscus neglectus and Stirapleura decussata at Penticton and Fair- 

 view in the spring, and freshly emerged specimens were seen again during the 

 last week in August. I believe that this grasshopper is, by some writers, considered 

 to 1)6 a variety of H. neglectus and not a distinct species. 



Hippiscus vitellinus (Saussure). This grasshopper is very similar to 

 Hippiscus ohscurus luit differs from it by having regularly distril)uted blotches 



