198 FAMILY V.— ACRIDIIN^. 



tennae, male, 10 mm., female, 8.5 mm.; tegmina, male, 21.5 

 mm., female, 19.75 mm.; hind femora, male, 13 mm., fe- 

 male, 14.25 mm. 



This is our most common locust, found ever3^\Yhere, and 

 usually in xevy large numbers. If favored by dry summers 

 this insect becomes very destructive, in fact it is controlled 

 greatly by climatic conditions and parasites. It prefers low 

 ground, cultivated fields and places abounding in rank and 

 tender vegetation. This is the reason v^hy dry hillsides are 

 free of its presence, -while lower meadows near by may be 

 swarming with multitudes. The female is illustrated in 

 Fig. 122. 



Melanoplus angustipennis Dodge. 



Of medium size, dark fuscous, head prominent, plumbeo- 

 or ferrugineo-testaceous, often mottled with fuscous, above 

 much infuscated, except at the margin of the eyes, and with 

 a post-ocular piceous band; vertex gently tumid, slightly ex- 

 cavated above the pronotum ; fastigium strongl}^ declivent, 

 distinctly (male) or feebly (female) sulcate throughout; 

 frontal costa equal, percurrent, as broad as the interspace 

 between the eyes, fainth^ sulcate at and below the ocellus, 

 biseriately punctate ; eyes moderately large and prominent. 

 Pronotum dark fuscous, lighter on the lateral lobes, with a 

 sub-luteous median streak, bordering a broad postocular 

 piceous band on the prozona ; disk feebly enlarging poste- 

 riorly, very broadly convex, passing into the vertical lateral 

 lobes by a roundly angulated shoulder, forming tolerably 

 distinct lateral carinaeonthe posteriorhalf of the pronotum; 

 median carina distinct on the metazona, obsolete (male) or 

 sub-obsolete (female) on the prozona. Prosternal spine not 

 very long, erect, conico-cylmdrical, blunt. Tegmina reach- 

 ing or slightly surpassing the tips of the hind femora, 

 slender, tapering, brownish-fuscous, immaculate or with 

 very obscure and feeble maculations along the middle line. 

 Fore and middle femora distinctly but not greatly tumid 



