SUBFAMILY OEDIPODINAE 37 
on their hillside. Was this in some way a competition or merely for 
the pleasure of the music? 
This species is attacked, especially in late fall, by a small fly 
(Anthomyid?) which rises and darts after the brightly marked locust 
while it is in flight, evidently seeking to deposit eggs or maggots upon 
the insect. This species has been taken at Fort Snelling, Gray Cloud 
Island, Mankato, Albert Lea, Pipestone, Redwood Falls, Monticello, 
Fergus Falls, Ada, Detroit, St. Cloud, and Mahtomedi. 
The following is taken from Mr. Howard’s insectary notes: “The 
eggs are laid in a slightly irregular clump at the bottom of a boot- 
shaped pocket. These pockets are either perpendicular for a distance 
of about three-quarters of an inch and then turned at nearly a right 
angle, or they may slant at a sharp angle with the surface of the soil 
with the basal portion more nearly parallel with the soil. The tube is 
not so compact and hard as with the Melanopl. Five tubes examined 
contained 21, 25, 21, 20, and 21 eggs respectively.” 
Arphia conspersa Scudd. 
Arphia conspersa is structurally very similar to the following 
species but in typical forms may be readily separated by the characters 
given in the key. We have found it rather rare and local within our 
State, having taken it but twice, once at Pipestone in the southwestern 
part and again near St. Paul Park in the eastern part of the State. 
In both cases it was taken amid sparse grasses, such as Sporobolus, on 
very dry, gravelly soils. In both cases it was apparently few in num- 
bers and careful search afforded but one or two specimens of this 
among the large numbers of A. carimata and Melanoph with which it 
was associated. In flight and in general appearance it bears consid- 
erable resemblance to A. sulphurea. 
Arphia arcta Scudd. 
Lugger has recorded two specimens of Arphia arcta from St. 
Anthony Park (Third Ann. Rept. of Entomologist, Minn. Exp. Sta., 
p. 143), but it has not been taken there or elsewhere in the State since. 
It does, however, occur in both Iowa and Nebraska near our borders 
and will doubtless be found again within our State. Since it has not 
been very generally described in recent publications the descrip- 
tion is here quoted in full to aid in recognition of the species. “Head 
grayish brown above, yellowish elsewhere; the median carina of ver- 
tex broken at the posterior limit of the fastigium by the deeply im- 
pressed arcuate transverse furrow which marks the same, extending 
through the frontal costa nearly to the ocellus, expanding and forming 
