Bruner: South American Crickets. 379 



thev ha\c the habit of gathering in grain shocks where they have been 

 known to gnaw the bands of twine which hold the individual sheafs of 

 grain together and thus render its handling difficult and more expen- 

 sive. 



The characters used for the separation of the various species are 

 such as size, length of wing, length of ovipositor, comparative size 

 and form of head and pronotum, and the size and form of the hind 

 femora, together with the venation of the tegmina of the males. 



About eighteen species have been recorded from the Antilles and 

 South American countries. Only a very small proportion of these 

 seem to be represented by the material now being reported upon. 

 No synoptical key for the separation of the South American forms 

 will be given on that account, but the reader is referred to the special 

 papers of Saussure above cited. 



38. Gryllus abbreviatus Serville. 



Gryllus abbreviatus Serville, Ins. Orth. (1839), P- 335; Scudder, Bost. Journ. Nat. 

 Hist., VII (1862), p. 427; Glover, III. N. A. Orth. (1872), PI. 9, figs. 10, 11; 

 Saussure, Miss. Mex., Orth. (1874), P- 40o; Mem. Soc. Geneve, XXV (1877), 

 p. 149; and others. 

 For synonymy see Kirby, Syn. Cat. Orth., II (1906), p. 35. 



Habitat. — There seems to be a female of the present species at hand 

 from the Island of Jamaica, W. I. It belongs to the Carnegie Museum 

 Accession No. 2306. 



Three other short-winged crickets are among the material now 

 being studied. Two of these, male and female, come from Chapada 

 and Para, Brazil (H. H. Smith), and the other, a female, from the 

 Province del Sara, Bolivia, 350 M. (J. Steinbach), October, 1913. 

 However, these latter have the ovipositor but 15 mm. long, and 

 may be brachypterous specimens of G. assimilis. 



I may add that the present status of our knowledge of the American 

 species of this genus is rather vague. We know but little concerning 

 the amount of variation in size, color, form of head, pronotum, 

 length of wing and ovipositor which may be found to exist in these 

 insects. In order to reach satisfactory conclusions a very large series 

 of specimens is necessary from a wide extent of territory. The habits 

 also of the living insects should be considered when such a study is 

 taken up. 



