324 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. VOL.XX. 



105. MELANOPLUS TEXANUS. 

 (Plate XXII, fig. 1.) 



Pezotettix texanus SCUDDER!, Proc. Boat. Soc. Nat. Hist., XX (1879), pp. 80-81; 



Cent. Orth. (1879), pp. 69-70. BRUNER, Rep. U. S. Ent. Comm., Ill (1883), 



p. 59. 

 Pezotettix scudderi BRUNER!, Bull. Washb. Coll., I (1885), p. 136. 



Of moderately large size. Head hardly prominent, the vertex tumid, 

 a little elevated above the pronotuin, the interspace between the eyes 

 half as broad again (male) or twice as broad (female) as the first anten- 

 nal joint; fasti gium rather steeply declivent, so shallow as to be hardly 

 perceptible, broad, enlarging, and well rounded apically; frontal costa 

 moderate, rather prominent, equal, plane, nowhere sulcate excepting 

 at and for a short distance below the ocellus and slightly, as broad as 

 the interspace between the eyes, delicately punctate throughout; eyes 

 moderately large, moderately and similarly prominent in the two sexes 

 a little longer than the infraocular portion of the genae; antennae five- 

 sevenths (male) or two-thirds (female) as long as the hind femora. 

 Pronotum very simple, nearly equal, enlarging a little on the metazona 

 (male) or enlarging posteriorly to a considerable extent and uniformly 

 throughout (female), the front margin scarcely convex (male) or trun- 

 cate (female), the hind border very broadly augulate; median carina 

 distinct and abrupt but slight and equal, the lateral carinae subobso- 

 lete; prozona distinctly longitudinal (male) or longitudinally subquad- 

 rate (female), about a third longer than the very faintly rugulose 

 metazona. Prosternal spine long, subconical, mesially enlarged, blunt, 

 a little retrorse ; interspace between mesosternal lobes twice or more 

 than twice as long as broad (male) or subquadrate, by exception half as 

 long again as broad (female). Tegmiua abbreviate, overlapping, pro- 

 duced ovate, about as long as the head and pronotum together, nearly 

 twice as long as broad, the inner margin rather gently the costal mar- 

 gin considerably convex, the tip roundly pointed. Fore and middle 

 femora somewhat tumid in the male. Extremity of male abdomen 

 clavate, considerably recurved, the supraanal plate triangular, a very 

 little broader than long, pointed, the sides nearly straight; furcula con- 

 sisting of a pair of slight but broad, depressed, angular teeth, their 

 points as far apart as the width of one of them; cerci rather broad 

 and straight, broadly and roundly constricted in the middle, the 

 extremity truncate and rounded, the whole directed toward the apex of 

 the subgenital plate and curved considerably inward; subgenital plate 

 bluntly subconical, the margin quadrate, the apical margin a little ele- 

 vated, recurved, and entire. 



The general color is a dull somewhat cinereous brown above, a dirty 

 but rather pale greenish brown below, marked conspicuously by a very 

 broad straight piceous belt, scarcely broader behind than in front, 

 extending from the eyes across the prozona, its upper edge at the 



