—79— 



The chief difficulty in ihe preparation of the Ust has not consisted 

 in capturing the specimens, though, as ah-eady stated a few are rare and 

 others local, but has centered more particularly about the disputed 

 species. Mr. Samuel H. Scudder has identified many of the specimens 

 and some have also been inspected by Mr. Lawrence Bruner. 



Nearly all of the species mentioned will be found described at some 

 length in "The Orthoptera of New England," by C. H. Fernald, 

 published in the Thirty-fifth Annual Report of .the INIass. Board of Agri- 

 culture. Seventy-one species are noted in that work and it will be ob- 

 served that sixty-three are here recorded. 



GRYLLIDiE. 



Gryllotalpa borealis, Biinn. Aui^ust. 



This insect is not difficult to capture. It can be located in the 

 muggy places that it inhabits by it song and may be easily probed out 

 of the tunnel with the finger. If the captive specimen is placed on the 

 ground it will begin straightway to dig, or if put on a handkerchief or 

 piece of paper, go througli all the motions necessary to bury itself under 

 natural conditions. 



Gryllotalpa Columbia, .Scudder. August. 



This form does not differ from the preceding, except in length and 

 size of wings ; a common variation in Gryllus and in insects of other 

 orders. It is often attracted by light, at least, I have a specimen that 

 was captured in a barber shop and another found in a parlor. 



Gryllus abbreviatus, Serville. 



" luctuosus, Serville. 



Gryllus may be heard stridulating on the last days of May and from 

 thence onward to frost. Many of the immature live under stones &c. 

 over winter, and if they are placed in a box together they speedly fight, 

 and the weaker ones are devoured. 



Nemobius vittatus, Ilairis. Late June and July. 



This insect is quite pugnacious and will sometimes bite savagely 

 when poked with a straw, even coming forward to meet it, after several 

 apparent failures on the part of the straw to do it any damage. They 

 will also quarrel among themselves. I have seen two individuals fight- 

 ing in the field, all the while keeping up a constant stridulation, but 

 neither one appeared to be at all injured, they having merely pulled one 

 another about a little. There is a small form that has generally been 

 included in this species. What Dr. Fitch calls the "fiddle bow nerve" 

 in the tegmina is differently shaped from the preceding, the ovipositor is 

 shorter (4 to 5 mm. long), and die stridulation a continuous rolling 

 whir, instead of the ordinary CTc/zi', cre'a/', c/'6?a/{'. However, further in- 

 vestigation may prove these characters unstable. 



Anaxipha exigua, Say. Augu>t. 



Staten Island appears to be the most north-eastern station for this 

 insect so far reported. It is not uncommon in certain localities along 

 the ditches in the salt meadows where the high tide bushes {Iva friilescens) 

 g;"")w. It clings from six inches to a foot up the stems and its song has 

 a particular silverv tone. 



