EEVISION OF THE OETHOPTEEAN GEOUP MELANOPLI 

 (ACEIDIIDAE), WITH SPECIAL EEFEEENCE TO NOETH 

 AMEEICAN FOEMS. 



By SAMUEL HUBBAED SCUDDEE. 



INTEODUCTION. 



THE PEESENT ESSAY describes iii detail and discusses the classifi- 

 cation of a group of grasshoppers which forms the prevailing type of 

 orthopteran life throughout North America the common short-horned 

 grasshoppers one sees every summer day. Its best known representa- 

 tive to the world at large is the destructive migratory locust of the 

 West, the so called "Eocky Mountain Locust." The outbreak of this 

 insect has been at times extremely disastrous; so much so that a Gov- 

 ernment commission was for several years in existence, which pub- 

 lished nearly twenty years ago two voluminous reports in which it and 

 on or two of its immediate allies were studied with a minuteness and 

 thoroughness, and illustrated with a fullness very rarely given to any 

 such insignificant looking creature. 



This destructive insect has numerous closely related allies in all parts 

 of the United States, many of which often abound to such an extent as 

 to do serious damage to crops, and a few of them have been known to 

 migrate in similar fashion (though over a far more restricted area), so 

 that they have sometimes been mistaken by the uninstructed for that 

 destructive pest. 



The group is almost confined to North America, and a great many 

 species have been described by various writers in a more or less desul- 

 tory manner. It is the aim of the present paper to enlarge and sys- 

 tematize our knowledge of this important group as a basis for future 

 studies. No group of North American Orthoptera has been in greater 

 need of revision. 



PROCEEDINGS U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, VOL. XX No. 1 124. 

 Proc. N. M. vol. xx 1 1 



