366 



PSYCHE. 



[June 1S99. 



ARKANSAS MELANOPLI. — III. 



BY JEROME ^rCNEILL, FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. 



Ali'lanopliis imfigc?- Stiidd. — This is 

 a not uncommon species among vegeta- 

 tion in the sandy bottoms and along the 

 banks of streams. I have captured full 

 grown specimens as early as the seven- 

 teenth of July and as late as the twenty- 

 sixth of October. These specimens 

 seem to be quite typical. Sixteen males, 

 twenty females from Washington, Craw- 

 ford, Sebastian, and Marion counties. 



Melanoplus keelei-i Scudd. — A variable 

 species occurs commonly in Arkansas 

 and farther north which after much 

 hesitation I have decided to consider 

 Aid. kcekri. I have specimens from 

 Washington, Crawford, Sebastian, Madi- 

 son, Newton and Marion counties and 

 from the Indian Territory and while 

 they vary little in size and color there 

 is such great difference in proportion 

 and shape of parts that following 

 Scudder's key individuals fall in either 

 of three closely related species, Mel. 

 keele?-i, deleter and liiridiis. To illus- 

 trate the amount and character of this 

 variation, I have five males from Fay- 

 etteville, one has the median carina 

 of the pronotum percurrent oh the pro- 

 zone and distinct, a second has it 

 percurrent but indistinct, a third has it 

 entirely obsolete between the transverse 

 sulci, the last two have no trace of it on 

 the prozone. All of these specimens 

 have the space between the mesosternal 



lobes three times as long as wide ; but 

 four males from Cane Hill in the western 

 part of Washington County have the 

 space between the mesosternal lobes four 

 times as long as wide, and in the median 

 carina they are quite constant, there 

 being but a faint indication of it before 

 the first sulcus. Three other males 

 from Fort Smith, Gaither, Newton 

 County, Ark., and Mackey, I. T. have 

 the median carina percurrent and dis- 

 tinct on the prozone but the second and 

 third have the space between the 

 mesosternal lobes two and one half times 

 as long as wide while the first has this 

 space little if any longer than broad. 

 The cerci are very like those of Mel. 

 luridus as figured by Scudder but they 

 difi^er much in color and appearance 

 from typical specimens from Nebraska. 

 The furcula is very small, in one case 

 apparently obsolete, and very divergent. 

 My specimens are indistinguishable in 

 size and color from Illinois specimens 

 which Scudder considers Mel. colliniis. 

 On the whole it seems to me to be 

 highly probable that the four species 

 named above are merely varieties of one 

 widespread species and accordingly I 

 give the Arkansas specimens the oldest 

 name. 



Melanoplus ailanis Riley. — This wide- 

 ly distributed species is rather more 

 common than Mel. femur ruhrum. 



