25C 



PSYCHE. 



[October, igoi. 



MIOGRYLLUS AND ITS SPECIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



Miogryllus, an American genus, has 

 not hitherto been recognized as occur- 

 ring in the United States, excepting that 

 one of its species, originally described 

 by me as a Gryllodes, was placed here 

 by Saussure, who had not seen it. A 

 study of the material in my collection, 

 though scanty, reveals the presence of 

 no less than five species, all found along 

 our southern border, which may be sep- 

 arated by the table given below. 



I have seen none of the species found 

 further south beyond our borders, but 

 as developed in the United States, Mio- 

 gryllus — first described as a section or 

 subgenus of Gryllus — is distinguished 

 from Grylkis by the much smaller size of 

 its representatives, approximating Ne- 

 mobius, in the (usual) absence or e.x- 



tremely inconspicuous nature of the 

 auditory foramen on the inner side of the 

 fore tibiae (found distinctly in only one 

 species), in the unbranched or only one- 

 branched (rarely two-branched) medias- 

 tinal vein of the tegmina, in the presence 

 of only two "oblique veins " on the tym- 

 panum of the male tegmina, in the longi- 

 tudinal course of the veins on the dorsal 

 field of the female tegmina, in the brevity 

 of the hind tibiae, which are only about 

 two thirds as long as the hind femora 

 and are armed on either side with four 

 or five spines only, and in the striped or 

 banded, usually longitudinally striped, 

 summit of the head. The male tegmina 

 are apically truncate or subtruncate, and 

 the antennae are apparently longer and 

 slenderer than in Gryllus. 



Tabic of the United States species of Miogryllus. 



T^. Auditory foramen on inner side of fore tibiae absent or very obscure. 

 b^. Disk of pronotum mottled irregularly with dark and light in equal masses, or 

 wholly dark; hind tibiae not or scarcely more than two thirds as long as hind 

 femora ; mediastinal vein of tegmina not more than one-branched. 



(-^ Head relatively large ; pronotum noticeably broader in front than behind, 

 the colors on disk and lateral lobes prevailingly light . . . ca/'itati/s. 



C-. Head relatively small ; pronotum not or but feebly broader in front than 

 behind, the colors on disk and lateral lobes prevailingly dark. 



iP. Head conspicuously striped longitudinally; lateral lobes of pronotum 

 narrowly margined beneath with light color; tegmina shorter than head and 

 pronotum combined, the mediastinal vein unbranched . . liiicatus. 



d'^. Head generally black, sometimes slightly striped longitudinally ; lateral 



