434 



PSYCHE. 



[November — December iSqo. 



nearly horizontal throughout, scarcely 

 permitting the pleural plate to be seen. 



Gvmnes. 

 Body very stout; vertex slightly descending 

 at apex, the tip truncate; frontal costa not 

 extending over the lower half of the face; 

 metazona above transversely concave ; lower 

 posterior angle of lateral lobes of prothorax 

 decidedly obtusangulate ; hind legs relatively 

 short; hind fem-ora short and stout; hind 

 tibiae with not more than eight spines in the 

 outer row; hind tarsi more than half as long 

 as hind tibiae. 



Vertex gently convex between the eyes; 

 transverse sulci of pronotum faintly 

 traced except at the lateral canthi and 

 there not deep, each subordinate lobe at 

 this point armed with a rounded tuber- 

 cle Hippacris. 



Vertex transversely sulcata between the 

 eyes: transverse sulci of the pronotum 

 distinct, cutting deeply through the sharp 



lateral canthi Daemoiica. 



From one of the early explorations 

 next the eastern base of the Rocky ]Moun- 

 tains under Major Long, Say was able 

 to bring home many curious insects 

 which for a long time were known, only 

 b}' his descriptions. One of these was 

 his Gryllus hirtipcs taken "on the 

 banks of the Arkansaw Riv'er, about a 

 hundred and fifty miles from the moun- 

 tains." This striking and beautifully 

 marked insect is still a rarity, and was 

 not mentioned from the time of Say's 

 description in 1825 until 1S71 when 

 Thomas in one of Hayden's Reports es- 

 tablished for it the genus Acrolophitus^ 

 but left us at a loss as to its position, as 

 he placed it with T^omonotus Sauss., an 

 Oedipodid, between Stauronotus and 

 Stetiobothrus, the last two being well 

 known tryxalidae ; two years later how- 



ever, in his Synopsis of the Acrididae 

 he plainly refers it to a "section" con- 

 taining only tryxalidae. No one has 

 since disturbed it. It can hardly have 

 been known to Saussure, the latest mon- 

 ographer of the oedipodidae. 



As stated above however it is plainly 

 one of the oedipodidae., for although 

 the vertex is ascending and prominent, 

 forming a distinct frontal process which 

 makes it present a very ctu'ious aspect 

 among oedipodidae., while the vena 

 intercalata of the tegmina is feeble and 

 irregular or wanting, yet its other char- 

 acteristics are all of another kind. The 

 front is subperpendicular, except for 

 the slightly projecting process above ; 

 the eyes are very small and not more 

 than half as long as the infraocular por- 

 tion of the genae ; the antennae are 

 linear ; the pronotum is crested (but 

 on the metazona only), the metazona 

 much longer than the prozona, rectan- 

 gulate behind ; the transverse sulci of 

 the prozona are continuous and inter- 

 sect the slight median carina ; the an- 

 terior and posterior margins of the lat- 

 eral lobes are subparallel ; the basal half 

 of the marginal area of the tegmina is 

 irregularly and rather densely reticulate ; 

 the anal and axillar}- veins are indepen- 

 dent ; and the lobes of the metasternum 

 are rather widely distant. Except for 

 the fronto-vertical process the aspect is 

 wholly Oedipodine. The structural 

 features mentioned by Thomas being 

 an insufficient characterization of this 

 curious genus, the following description 

 may here find a place. 



