PliOCEEDlNG-S OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



and ' twftittitictis. Stated as briefly as possible, the 

 Melanopli are Acridians in which the antennae are longer than the fore 

 femora, which have no foveolae on the vertex, the fastigium more or less 

 deflexed, passing insensibly into the frontal costa, the prosteruum 

 mucronate, no sharp and distinct lateral carinae (or they are rarely 

 present), an arolium on all the tarsi, the hind tibiae with smooth mar- 

 gins, provided with 9-14 (by rare exception 8) spines regularly disposed 

 in the outer series, which lacks an apical representative, and the second 

 hind tarsal joint only half as long as the first. 



To state their characters more in detail, theMelauopli may be described 

 as Acridians, generally of small or medium size, never very large, in 

 which the head is not greatly exserted and the face is moderately oblique 

 or subvertical; the antennae are linear, longer than the fore femora; the 

 eyes are of moderate size, not very strongly prominent, never twice as 

 long as the infraocular portion of the geuae, the interspace between 

 them very rarely broad, generally narrow; the fastigium is more or less 

 decliveut, never greatly produced in the axis of the body, apically entire 

 and with no transverse ruga, passing insensibly and with obtuse arcu- 

 ation into the frontal costa; the latter is hardly rounded as seen from 

 the side, percurrent or subpercurrent, generally sulcate, the sulcation 

 ordinarily confined to the lower portion; without foveolae, the teinpora 

 small, obliquely declivent, confused with the front; the superior ocelli 

 more distant than the antennal scrobes ; the lateral carinae of the face 

 nearly equidistant from the lateral margins of the frontal costa, but 

 slightly divergent inferiorly. The dorsum of the pronotum is nearly 

 plane and without a crest, generally with no distinct lateral carinae, but 

 at most with rounded shoulders or feeble rugae to represent them, but 

 often passing insensibly into the lateral lobes ; the principal sulcus is 

 continuous; the prozona is generally smooth or obsoletely punctate, 

 never tuberculate, its sulci generally feebly impressed, often mesially 

 interrupted or subinterrupted, the posterior sulcus often distinctly 

 divergent laterally from the principal sulcus; the metazona is generally 

 shorter than the prozona and lies in the same or nearly the same plane 

 with it, almost always densely punctate; the lateral lobes are truncate 

 or subtruncate posteriorly, with no humeral sinus or only a feeble one, 

 the posterior lower angle distinctly obtuse. The prosteruum is armed 

 with a spine which is usually rather prominent and conical, sometimes 

 truncate, never sinuate, generally vertical on the posterior face, nearly 

 or quite as high as the anterior coxae, the posterior portion of the pro- 

 sternum not or but slightly tumescent; the mesosternal lobes are quad- 

 rate or transverse, separated more or less widely, the apical inner angle 

 rectangulate or obtusangulate, generally rounded (often obtusely), the 

 inner margins generally rounded, often posteriorly divergent; the meta- 

 sternal lobes are contiguous or not very distant excepting sometimes 

 in the female and then rarely as distant or even nearly as distant as 



