FAMILY v.— CEDIPODIN.^. 



171 



A number of specimens were captured among the rocks 

 at the State Park near Taylor's Falls. It may becomnion if 



looked for at the proper time. 

 It is readily confused with dark 

 forms of Spharagemon holli, 

 but may be distinguished by 

 the narrow wing band, en- 

 larged radial veins, pale hind 

 tibiae, and distinctly two- 

 notched pronotal carina. In 

 color it varies from a dark 

 gray or brown to black sprin- 

 kled with ashy, darkest on the 

 head and pronotum, palest on 

 base of hind thighs, and with 

 the tegmina distinctly trifas- 

 ciate. Its "song" in flight is 

 the loudest produced by any 

 of our locusts, and consists of 

 a series of separate notes, clicks or snaps, not a rattle, and 

 is readily distinguished by this peculiar snapping quality. 

 It is very shy and difficult to approach during the warmer 

 part of the day, when it often fhes away for a distance of 

 several rods and circles about, returning to the place whence 

 it started, like our common C-butterfl}', or dances up and 

 down in the air, snapping loudly. The female sometimes 

 makes a soft flutter or shuffle of wings in flight, probabl}'" 

 corresponding to the snapping of the male, and both sexes 

 can fly silently at will. The male stridulates when at rest, 

 by rubbing the hind thighs against the tegmina, producing 

 a "scritching" sound, audible at a distance of three or four 

 feet. The intercalary vein is toothed, in a low but continu- 

 ous series, for its entire length in the male, and on the distal 

 half or more in the female, in which the teeth are lower and 

 barely perceptible. A male insect is illustrated in Fig. 103. 



Fig 103. — Circotettix venuculatus. 

 male. Original. 



