192 



SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



forms. For the one, the form above described, he has retained the 

 name under which it had been described by Fabricius, viz., Virginiana 

 (see the Synonymy given), and for the other, infuscata — the name 

 under which it had been described by Dr. Harris as a separate species. 

 The two differ in the presence or the absence of bright green colors, 

 which in the former replace the gray of the latter, in the whole of the 

 head, the front part of the thorax (pronotum), the hind thighs, and on 

 the greater portion of the costo-basal half of the fore-wings, and in 

 spots beyond the middle of their front border. These differences ap- 

 pear to be mainly sexual, for in about one hundred and fifty examples 

 examined by Mr. Scudder, 84 per cent of the males were infuscata, 

 and 77 per cent of the females Virguiiana. 



Synonymy. 



It will be seen from the table of synonymy given, that the species has 

 been peculiarly unfortunate in the number of names that it has received 

 both generic and specific — Dr. Harris having made three species of it. 



The generic name under which it is herein included, was proposed 

 for it by Mr. Scudder in consideration of Tragocephala being preoccu- 

 pied in the Coleoptera. 



Habits and Natural History. 



As soon as the weather becomes sufficiently warm in the spring, these 

 young grasshoppers come from their retreats and commence to feed. 

 Many of them (the more advanced) have attained their maturity and 

 acquired their wings by the middle of May. A few days after maturity 

 the female deposits her eggs. By means of the horny appendages with 

 which the tip of her abdomen is provided, she drills a hole in the 



ground the length of her 

 abdomen, which she pro- 

 ceeds to fill with from 

 twenty to thirty eggs ar- 

 ranged symmetrically in 

 four rows, and forming, 

 when the operation is 

 completed, a pod-like 

 mass, firmly cemented 

 together by a mucous 

 matter secreted with the 

 deposit of each separate 

 egg. Fig. K^ shows the 



Fig. 55. —a, a, a. Female in different positions ovipositing ; 6, egu- °f . . 



po'I extracted from tlie ground, with the end broken open: c, somB nvioosition of the Rockv 



separate egss ; d. e., a section showing an egg -pod placed and another l J 



Oeing placed ;/, where a pod has been covered up. Mountain loCUSt and as 



the methods are very similar in the Acridldce it may illustrate that of 



