150 NEW NORTH AMERICAN MELANOPLI (oRTHOPTERa) 



strongly obtuse-angulate with apex rounded. Prosternal spine conical with 

 apex decidedly blunt, heavier with apex more blunted than in mimica. Inter- 

 space between mesosternal lobes hardly twice as long as broad. 



Allotype. — 9 ; same data as type. [Hebard Collection.] 



Agrees with male except in the following features. Size considerably larger, 

 form much more robust. Ovipositor valves as normal for the genus, with distal 

 teeth of dorsal pair not narrowing as much as is usual in allied genera, and with 

 apex in consequence horizontally more broadly convex (in the present series 

 the valves average proportionately slightly shorter than in the other species). 

 Prosternal spine very heavy, heavier than in male, distinctly widest trans- 

 versely. Interspace between mesosternal lobes quadrate.^ 



Measurements (in millimeters) 



Type. 

 Paratypes i» (24). 



9 



Allotype. 

 Paratypes (8). 



Coloration of male very similar to that of mimica, except that the buflfy 

 markings margining the dorsum of the pronotum laterad are decidedly nar- 

 rower than is normal in that species, in a few specimens being obsolete. The 

 males are brown, with pale markings buffy and darker markings dark brown. 

 Minor differences in intensity of color pattern are frequent and occasional 

 recessive specimens have the buffy portions yellow ish with a very weak tinge 

 of green. 



The females agree with the males in general type of color pattern, which is, 

 however, usually much less strongly defined, the markings margining the dor- 

 sum of the pronotum laterad being reduced and confined to the prozona or 

 entirely wanting, and the dorsal surface of the caudal femora shows the two 

 dark transverse bands much less distinctly. Two color phases occur in this 

 Bex, one in which the general coloration is brown (warm sepia to mikado brown), 

 the other with head, dorsal portions of thorax and caudal femora olive (yellow- 

 ish olive to hght yellowish olive) and abdomen brown. In all the species of 

 Paraidemona the caudal tibiae are glaucous tinged with green (lumiere blue to 

 turquoise green). 



* This feature is not as valuable to separate females of this species from 

 those of mimica (in which this interspace averages much longer than wide) as 

 might be imagined. Individually a decided amount of variation occurs, which 

 has convinced us that, though useful as a secondary diagnostic feature, this 

 character has by no means the value we often find ascribed to it in the litera- 

 ture. In the series of P. mimica at hand the interspace between the meso- 

 sternal lobes varies from subquadrate to nearly three times as long as wide. 

 We have found similar variation in this feature in species of Melanoplus. 



1° The average of the series is nearest the type, the maximum individual is, 

 decidedly larger than any of the others. 



