NO.H24. /,'/: r/N/o.v or TIIK MELAXOPLISCUDDEK. 



the mesosterual lobes. The tegmina are frequently abbreviate or even 

 wanting; when fully developed, they taper gently almost throughout 

 and are rather remotely reticulate at least in their apical half, the cells 

 of the postradial area wholly or partially biseriate in arrangement on 

 either side of an intercalary vein; the wings are almost always clear 

 and uniform, never definitely pictured, the veins never scalariform, the 

 areolae quadrate or longer than broad. All the tarsi are furnished with 

 an arolium, the front legs are less distantly separate*:! than the hind 

 pair, the fore tarsi are of moderate length, the first joint short or rather 

 short; the hind femora are distinctly incrassate basally, generally sur- 

 pass the abdomen, the upper face generally smooth, the dorsal cariua 

 entire, unarmed, not profoundly excised before the geuiculation; the 

 hind tibiae have smooth lateral margins, the spines of the outer and 

 inner paries are equal or subequal in length, those of the outer series 

 typically nine 1 or more in number, rarely exceeding fourteen, placed at 

 subequal distances apart and lacking an apical spine next the calcaria; 

 the hind tibiae have the first joint not compressed, equal to or slightly 

 longer than the third, the second much shorter, generally a half shorter,' 

 than the first as seen from above. The second dorsal segment of the 

 abdomen is neither granulate nor dentate at the anterior angles, the 

 extremity of the abdomen in the male generally more or less clavate 

 and recurved, the supraanal plate not tuberculate, with a basal median 

 sulcus, a furcula usually present, the cerci very variable, rarely longer 

 than the supraanal plate, straight or gently curved, never abruptly 

 recurved basally, generally compressed at least in part, often laminate, 

 but with no iudirected median spine. 



The foundation for our present knowledge of the structural features 

 of the Melanopli was laid by Stal 2 and enlarged in his Systema 

 Acrideodeorum (1878) and his Observations Orthopterologiques, lit 

 (1878). In its present form the group was first defined and named by 

 Brunner von Wattenwyl, 3 who applied to it the term PEZOTETTIGES. 

 I have here limited it strictly in the same manner, but it will appear 

 that it contains a very much larger number of generic types than were 

 credited to it by Brunner and a vast multitude of species. I shall 

 moreover show below, when treating the genus Podisma, 4 that the gen- 

 eric term Pezotettix, from which Brunner derived the name of the 

 group, has been misapplied of recent years, and should be referred to 

 the group called Platyphymata in Brunner's Revision. I have accord- 

 ingly here named the present group MELANOPLI after its predominant 

 genus MelanopluSj the species of which far outnumber all the others com- 

 bined. Giglio-Tos in recent papers has described several new genera and 



1 By exception, in one sex or on one side of the body, there may be only eight. 



2 Recensio Orthopterorum, I (1873). 



3 Revision du Systeme des Orthopteres (1893). 



4 See also Psyche, VII, pp. 195-196. 



