PSYCHE. 



AN UNUSUAL APPEARANCE OF SCHISTOCERCA AMERICANA. 



BY W. S. BLATCHLEY, TERRE HAUTE, IXD. 



About three o'clock in the morning 

 of April nth, 1S93, the city of Terre 

 Haute, Indiana, was visited with a 

 sevei'e storm of rain and wind from the 

 southwest. 



A number of buildings were unroofed 

 and many shade and forest trees twisted 

 and broken oft'. 



While on my way to the High 

 School building several persons in- 

 formed me that they had that morning 

 seen specimens of "•gigantic grass- 

 hoppers" on the streets but were unable 

 to capture them. About ten o'clock 

 one of my former pupils brought me 

 two living, mature specimens of that 

 large and handsome locust, Schisto- 

 cerca americana Drury, which she had 

 picked up from the sidewalk near her 

 home. I was much surprised to see 

 them as the earliest date at which I 

 had before noted the species in this 

 vicinity was June 27, 1891, when I 

 found them common and freshly 

 moulted in a small prairie east of Terre 

 Haute. I have never seen the young or 

 imagos in winter but have taken the 

 latter in numbers as late as November 

 22nd. 



On looking up all references as to 

 their time of appearance in other locali- 

 ties I find nothing definite as to whether 

 the species hibernates as imago or 

 young and but little about its appear- 

 ance in spring. Dr. Riley gives June 

 14th as the date of its appearance at St. 

 Louis,* and statesf that the average 

 period between hatching and maturity 

 is 70 days. He also states! that "Cer- 

 tain large locusts, belonging to the 

 genera Acridium and Oedipoda, hiber- 

 nate in the full grown, winged state . . . 

 and that two species which are 

 most often found with the young (of 

 Melanoplus spretus Uhler) are the 

 American Acridium, (Acridium 

 americanum Drury) and the Coral- 

 winged Locust ( Oedipoda phoenicop- 

 tera Germ)." He does not say in so 

 many words that americana hiber- 

 nates in the mature state, though from 

 the context one would infer that he so 

 meant. In this locality the Coral- 

 winged Locust, now known as Hippis- 



* First Report U. S. entomological commission, 221 . 

 f Loc. cit. 237. 

 J L,oc. cit. 236. 



