THE MEADOW GR ASSHOPTERS. 161 



the body, curved upwards like the piercer of the female. 

 This grasshopper belongs to the genus Plianero'ptera^ so 

 named, probably, because the wings ai'e visible beyond the 

 tips of the wing-covers ; and, as it does not appear to have 

 been described before, I propose to call it angustifoUa* 

 (Fig. 70,) the narrow-leaved. It measures from the fore- 

 head to the end of the abdomen about three quarters of an 

 inch, and to the tips of the wings from an inch and a half 

 to an inch and three quarters. Its habits appear to be the 

 same as those of the ohlongifolia. It comes to maturity 

 some time in the latter part of Auirust or the beo-iimino; of 

 September. 



From the middle till the end of summer, the grass in our 

 meadows and moist fields is filled with myriads of little grass- 

 hoppers, of difterent ages, and of a light green color, with a 

 brown stripe on the top of the head, extending to the tip of 

 the little smooth and blunt projection between the antennae, 

 and a broader brown stripe bounded on each side by deeper 

 brown on the top of the thorax. The antennce, knees, and 

 shanks are green, faintly tinted with brown, and the feet are 

 dusky. When come to maturity, they measure three quar- 

 ters of an inch or more, from the forehead to the end of the 

 body, or one inch to the ends of the wing-cavers. The 

 latter are abruptly narrowed in the middle, and taper thence 

 to the tip, which, however, is rounded, and extends as far 

 back as the wino;s. The color of the wins-covers is green, 

 but they are faintly tinged with brown on the overlapping 

 portion, and have the delicacy and semi-transparency of the 



* I formerly mistook this insect for the Locusta curvicmida of De Geer, which 

 is found in the Middle and Southern States, but not in Massachusetts, is a larger 

 species, with wing-covers broadest in the middle, and different organs in the male, 

 and belongs to the genus PhyllopteraJ 



[■^ This is the true curvicauda ; it was figured by Drury as P. myi'tifolia, but he 

 unfortunately confounded it with a species somewhat resembling it from South 

 America, which has caused some authors to i-efer his figure to the one described 

 by Linnseus; but that is a different insect, belonging to the genus Phyllqitera. 

 The synonymy of this species is, Phnneroptera curvicauda, De Geer ^ P. myrtifoUa, 

 Drury ^ P. sejitentrionalis, Serv. = P. anr/tistifoUa, HaiTis. — Uhler.] 



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