40) THE ACRIDIIDAE OF MINNESOTA 
sents certain characters of the 7ry.xalinae, with which it was formerly 
classed but has a predominance of Oedipodine characters. 
Chortophaga viridifasciata DeG. 
Excluding the Tettigidae, Chortophaga viridifasciata may be 
considered our orthopteran “harbinger of spring,’ being normally the 
first of this order to appear. We have noted it in some numbers near 
Minneapolis as early as April 1, while in Iowa we have taken it a 
month earlier. It is found in two color phases, a smoky brown and a 
distinctly green form. The green ones are predominantly females, 
although males of this color are occasionally found. Some of the 
green form are very beautifully variegated with pink or lavender on 
face, antennae, pronotal carinae, and posterior femora. Bruner, speak- 
ing of this species, states that in Nebraska the brown form appears 
first in the spring and the green form later in the season, but in both 
Iowa and Minnesota we have noted that the two forms appear simul- 
taneously, the brown form being relatively more abundant in clear 
fields and open woods where it occurs with Arphia sulphurea, while 
the green form predominates in grassy spots, such as meadows and 
borders of streams. The species becomes very generally distributed 
later in the season and both color forms are together in almost any 
place where grasses and low vegetation offer sustenance. It is appar- 
ently double-brooded since we have found the young swarming in 
lowland meadows as early as June 26 and again in September. The 
males are very active and have a swift, low flight, often somewhat 
broken by zigzags and usually turning abruptly at an angle from the 
general direction of flight upon alighting. The females are heavier 
and have a somewhat labored flight usually ending by an abrupt dive 
into weeds or other concealing vegetation. 
Hancock (Nature Sketches in Temperate America, p. 410) has 
given the following interesting notes: “At Miller’s, Ind., June fifth, 
I found a female laying her eggs in damp sand at the border of a pond. 
When I approached she had her abdomen buried quite deeply. After 
I waited about fifteen minutes she moved away from the place. I 
proceeded very carefully to dig the earth away to one side of the bur- 
row and then it was found to be twenty-seven millimeters deep, and 
at the bottom, the eggs, twenty-five in number, were laid in a compactly 
cemented mass. They were bound together with a whitish mucous 
and there was quite an amount of this substance lying above the eggs 
in the burrow. The smaller poles or ends of the eggs were directed 
upward as is usual with Acridians. The eggs measured four and one 
half millimeters in length and about one millimeter in width and they 
