NOTES OX SOME UNITED STATES GRASSHOPPERS OF 

 THE FAMILY ACRIDIDAE. 



By A. N. Caudell, 

 Of the Bureau of Entomology , United States Department of Agriculture . 



Some time ago the United States National Museum received in 

 exchange a pair of Heliastus minimus Scudder from the par atypical 

 material in the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts. About the same time there was received in exchange 

 from the Snow collection in Kansas a single female specimen from 

 Arizona labeled as this species. On studying this material, and 

 later making further comparisons of material in Cambridge, it was 

 foimd that Scudder's species was not a true Heliastus and that the 

 female received from the Snow collection was not Scudder's species, 

 nor congeneric with it. Thus a new genus is here erected for Heliastus 

 minimus and the female received from Snow is described as a new 

 genus and species. 



XERACRIS, ne^w genus. 



Allied to Anconia, Heliastus, and Ramona but readily distinguish- 

 able from these genera by the metasternal interspace being sub- 

 quadrate in the female and longer than broad in the male, while 

 in these genera this interspace is at least as broad as long in both 

 sexes, and in the female, broadly transverse. From Heliastus and 

 Ramona it is also easily separated by having a distinct intercalary 

 vein present on the elytra, in this respect agreeing with Anconia, 

 the most nearly aUied genus. 



Description. — Head moderate, shghtly broader than the anterior 

 portion of the pronotum; eyes about as prominent as in Heliastus, 

 less prominent than in Ramona or typical Anconia. Pronotum 

 quite strongly constricted mesially, the anterior portion noticeably 

 narrower than the posterior; lateral carinae not present and the 

 median carina present only as a raised hue, barely noticeable except 

 on the posterior lobe, and cut by aU three transverse sulci; anterior 

 margin subtruncate, mesiaUy somewhat rounded, the posterior 

 margin obtuse angulate; mesosternal interspace of both sexes 

 transverse but narrower than either of the lobes themselves; meta- 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 49— No. 2093. 



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