148 



from floral organs. In one case it was penetrated by a fungus mycelium, 

 indicating a decaying condition of the tissue devoured. 



These grasshoppers may be readily known })y the long, straight, and 

 slender ovipositor of the female, longer than the body in one of the 

 commonest species. The antennse are threadlike, and two or three times 

 as long as the body. The above four species differ in the length of this 

 ovipositor in the females, in the form of the terminal pair of stylets in 

 the males, and in the length of the wings. In fasciatum the wings are 

 longer than the body; in the others, usually much shorter than the body; 

 in brevipenne the ovipositor is about as long as the body, in fasciatum and 

 nemorale it is less than half as long, and in strictum (Fig. 135) slightly 

 longer. The latter species has very short wings, about half the length of 

 the abdomen in the male and one third or less in the female. In the 

 males the terminal stylets of brevipenne curve strongly outward; in 

 strictum they curve inward; while in the other two th(;y are not curved 

 but are nearly parallel. 



The species with short ovipositors, such as nemorale, deposit their 

 eggs usually in soft stems. Those with long ovipositors insert their 

 eggs in small groups between the stem and leaf-sheaths of grasses, 

 and also between the appressed scales of the cone-galls of the willow. 

 We have found them thrust down between the leaf-sheath and stalk of 

 wheat, in the situation where the "flaxseeds" of the Hessian fly occur. 

 The eggs are about 4 mm. (one sixth inch) long and vary in thickness 

 according to species. Those found by us in wheat were somewhat 

 spindle-shaped, about seven times as long as thick, one end tapering and 

 quite pointed. These were taken in September and hatched early in 

 June of the following year. The young were probably those of strictum. 

 Nymphs are observable from June into fall and adults from late July 

 until frost. The species are quite similar in their life histories and 

 habits, though fasciatum and brevipenne seem to be more fond of low 

 ground along streams, while strictum and nemorale often abound on 

 drier slopes in woods and weedy grounds. 



X. fasciatum is found throughout the greater part of both North and 

 South America; brevipenne is generally distributed east of the Rocky 

 Mountains; and nemorale is especially a species of the northern, and 

 strictum of the western, United States. All are common in Illinois. 



THl'] GREAT PLAINS CRICKET. 



Anabrus simplex Hald. 



The so-called western crickets, which inhabit the arid regions of the 

 West, are not true crickets, but heavy-bodied wingless insects of the 

 same family as the meadow grasshoppers {Locustidce) . The species above 

 mentioned breeds in the great sage-brush plains of the interior valleys 



