PSYCHE. 



BIOLOGICAL AND OTHER NOTES ON AMERICAN ACRIDIIDAE. 



BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



Tettix granulatus Kirby. This 

 species flies in arches from six to ten 

 feet in length and a foot in height at 

 the most, without swerving to one side 

 or the other. 



Chloealtis conspersa Harr. The 

 eggs have a slight curve, so that when 

 the embryo is formed it lies with the 

 head downward and the back slightly 

 bent. The surface of the egg is micro- 

 scopically reticulate, the cells of the 

 reticulation 0.035 'fm- in diameter with 

 raised walls between them. During 

 the winter the embryo is in a stage of 

 development apparently equivalent to 

 the second or third stage of Diplax as 

 given by Packard ; the labium is unmis- 

 takably grouped with the legs and 

 nearly as long as they ; it is not until 

 spring that the abdominal segments are 

 mapped out, at least upon the dorsal 

 and ventral surfaces. The eggs are 

 excluded cap foremost, and in different 

 pods counted were 10, 11, 14,10,4,6,6. 



In the Geology of New Hampshire I 

 gave some account of my observations 

 on this insect at Sudbury, Vt. Subse- 

 quently I elsewhere observed that the 

 number of notes of the male in stridula- 

 tion varied from seven to sixteen and 

 that in the sun the rate at which they 



were produced was nearly four per 

 second. 



At West Campton, N. H., June 3, I 

 found in one egg-cluster the empty 

 puparium of a Tachinid fly, and in 

 another cluster, on removing the 

 cap, the pupa of Trichodes nut- 

 talli which yielded the beetle June 

 33d. Dr. LeConte determined the 

 beetle and wrote at the time that " T. 

 alvearitis of Europe lives in the lai-val 

 form in nests of mud wasps and T'. 

 aplarius of Europe in bee hives " ; in 

 still another cluster I found a coleopter- 

 ous larva, never determined, between 

 the eggs and the cap ; it was fat and 

 plump, although the eggs were un- 

 touched. 



Stenobothrus curtipennis (Harr.). 

 I have timed the stridulation of this 

 species many times with somewhat 

 varying results. I noted first, what I 

 have already published, that "■ the notes 

 are produced at the rate of about six a 

 second and are continued from one and 

 a half to two and a half seconds," but 

 that they were less rapid when the sky 

 was overcast. These were from obser- 

 vations at Hampton, N. H. At Jeffer- 

 son, N. H., on a warm and sunny 

 afternoon, I observed that the rate was 



