162 A NATURALIST IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION 



poisonous snakes when disturbed, though it is quite harmless. 

 If teased it " throws a fit" and lies semi-rigid, belly up, apparently 

 feigning death. 



Half a dozen new orthoptera are found on the ground or 

 shrubs in this association: the rusty, leather-colored, sprinkled, 

 and coral-winged locusts, the straight-lance and sword-bearing 

 grasshoppers, the Texan and the forked-tail katydids. The 

 latter two, however, have a very wide distribution and are 



not therefore at all 

 distinctive of this 

 region. The rusty 

 locust is from .2-.6 

 inches long. It is 

 russet brown in color 

 with a yellow stripe 

 down the back. It 

 has a bulky body. 

 Its face is vertical. 

 The inner wings are 

 transparent, the tip 

 being slightly red. 

 The leather-colored 

 locust, a closely allied 

 species, is often found 

 associated with it, 



especially near the margins of the swales, where the latter is often 

 found on the coarse grasses. The rusty locust is stouter than the 

 leather-colored, and its antennae do not exceed .6 of an inch, while 

 in the leather-colored they do, slightly. The sprinkled locust 

 (Fig. 1 68) is light brown (male) or clay yellow to dark brown 

 (female) . The sides of the shieldlike covering of the front part of 

 the thorax bears a glistening black bar in the male, a sprinkling of 

 black spots in the female. The fore wings are sprinkled with dark 

 spots abundantly in the female, sparingly in the male. The coral- 

 winged locust (Fig. 169) is the same size as the preceding, the 



FIG. 167. Puff adder or hognosed snake, Heter- 

 odon platirhinos. At left animal is rigid in a "fit." 



