368 PROCEEDINOS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxii. 



beside the first one. Tlius the female continues, placing a few eggs in one hole, a 

 few in another and so on, until a great many are laid about the roots of the same 

 clump of grass (fig. 53.) Often she quits one place and goes off some distance to 

 another. In the migrating bands the females have much difficulty in depositing their 

 eggs on account of the jostling and pushing of those moving past. Sometimes a female, 

 while ovipositing, rests on the ground in the natural position and inserts the ovi- 

 positor by drawing the tip forward beneath her and then thrusting it downward 

 into tlie ground. 



The eggs are not inclosed in a case, each being entirely free and separate from the 

 others. They are discharged from the tip of the ovipositor, passing slowly along its 

 entire length, one at a time, by a slight movement of the blades upon one another. 

 The latter spread apart at the tip as the egg passes out. 



After laying her eggs the female apparently weakens and dies during the day 

 following. 



By the middle of July the insects are said to be mostl}^ dead. 

 Toward the last the males are more numerous than the females by 

 reason of many of the latter having been eaten by their fellows when 

 weakened from ovipositing. 



A large Pompilid wasp, Palmodes riioris Kohl, was observed to 

 store its burrow with Peranabrus. Animals, birds, and reptiles will 

 probably bo found to feed upon this insect, as they are known to do 

 on Anahrus. 



Prof. C. V. Piper tells of statements made by Washington farmers 

 to the effect that hogs are sometimes killed by eating this insect, the 

 stomach walls being punctured by the sharp ovipositors of the females. 



ATELOPLUS Scudder. 



Ateloplm Scudder, Can. Ent., XXVI, 1894, pp. 179, 182 (invalid; no described 

 species mentioned); Guide Orth. N. A., 1897, p. 57 (invalid; no described 

 species mentioned); Cat. Orth. U. S., 1900, pp. 79, 98. — Kirby, Syn. Cat. 

 Orth., II, 1906, p. 195. 



Description. — Head moderatel}" small, not prominent; vertex 

 narrow, about one-fourth as broad as the interocular space; eyes 

 moderatel}" prominent, rounded ; antenna slender, the basal segment 

 broad, broader than the vertex. Pronotum small and very moderately 

 produced posteriorly; lateral lobes very poorly developed, uniformly 

 rounded into the disk, no trace of lateral or median carina; posterior 

 margins of the lateral lobes scarcely sinuate ; pronotal disk rounded, 

 smooth, with a more or lessdistinct transverse sulcus across the middle 

 of the anterior half, often not, or scarcely, visible ; anterior and pos- 

 terior margins of the disk subtruncate or ver}^ broadl}^ rounded. 

 Prosteriuim unarmed. Legs moderately stout, posterior femora more 

 than two times as long as the pronotum, nuich swollen in the basal 

 three-fourths and armed l^elow with a few stout spines on both mar- 

 gins ; anterior til)ia armed above on the outer side only, usually with 

 a single apical spine, sometimes witli two or three spines. Wings 

 concealed beneath the pronotum in the female, the elytra in the male 

 projecting one-half their length beyond the pronotum. Cerci simple 



