354 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. VOL. xx. 



Professor Lawrence Bruuer gives the following excellent summary of 

 its destructi ven ess and habits : 



This insect has very frequently multiplied in such numbers in limited areas over 

 its range as to do considerable injury to cultivated crops growing upon low, moist 

 ground; and has even been known very frequently to spread over higher and dryer 

 lands adjoining these, its customary haunts. It is one of the few species of locusts 

 that has thus far shown a tendency toward civilization. This it has done readily, 

 since its habits are in unison with the cultivation of the soil. It is only since the 

 settlement of the country where it originally occurred that it has multiplied so as 

 to become sufficiently numerous to become a serious pest. . . . 



The eggs . . . are laid in cultivated grounds that are more or less compact, pref- 

 erably old roads, deserted fields, the edges of weed patches, and well-grazed pastures 

 adjoining weedy ravines. Egg laying begins about the middle of August and con- 

 tinues into October, varying of course, according to latitude and climatic conditions. 

 Usually but not always, only a single cluster of eggs is deposited by each female. 

 Frequently there are two, and in extreme cases perhaps even three, of these clusters 

 deposited by a single female. 



121. MELANOPLUS ROBUSTUS. 

 (Plate XXIII, fig. 5.) 



Calopteims rolmstus SCUDDER!, Proc. Bost. Soc.Nat. Hist., XVII (1875), p. 473; 



Ent. Notes, IV (1875), p. 72. THOMAS, Eep. U. S. Eut. Comin., I (1873), 



p. 42. SCUDDER!, Cent. Orth. (1879), p. 17. RILEY, Am. Ent., Ill (1880), 



p. 220. BRUNER, Rep. U. S. Ent. Cornrn., Ill (1883), p. 60. 

 Caloptenns ponderosus SCUDDER, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XVII (1875), p. 473; 



Eut. Notes, IV (1875), p. 72. THOMAS, Rep. U. S. Eut. Comin., I (1878), 



p. 42. SCUDDER, Cent. Orth. (1879), p. 17. BRUNER, Rep. U. S. Ent. Comm., 



Ill (1883), p. 60. 



Pezotettix robitstus STAL, Bih. K. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Haudl., V, Xo. 9 (1878), p. 14. 

 Melanopbis robustus SCUDDER, Cent. Orth. (1879), p. 84. BUUNEU, Bull. Div. 



Ent.U. S. Dep. Agric., XXVII (1892), p. 33; ibid., XXVIII (1893), pp. 17-19, 



figs. 6, 7; Rep. Nebr. St. Bd. Agric., 1893 (1893), p. 460. 

 Melanoplns ponderosus SCUDDER, Cent. Orth. (1879), p. 84. BRUNER, Can. Ent., 



XXIII (1891), p. 193; Ins. Life, IV (1891), p. 22; Rep. Ent. Soc. Out., XXII 



(1891), p. 48. 



Varying from brownish testaceous to brownish fuscous, with more or 

 less of a cinereous tint; front of head and sides of prouotnni a little 

 paler, tinged with yellow, the head obscurely and more or less heavily 

 flecked with brown ; antennae yellow, iufuscated toward the tip. Inter- 

 space between the eyes much broader than (male) or twice as broad 

 as (female) the basal antennal joint, the fastigium broad, broadening in 

 front, scarcely depressed except sometimes slightly in the narrowest 

 part, the lateral margins sharp; frontal costa broad, broadening below, 

 broadly and shallowly sulcate excepting above. Pronotum broadening 

 a little on the metazona, the median carina slight, broken by all the 

 sulci, distinct only in front of and behind them; lateral carinae rather 

 distinct but slight and rounded. Slight black markings follow the 

 anterior portion of the lateral carinae and the transverse sulci of the 

 Literal lobes; occasionally these markings are more pronounced, and 

 then a slender blackish stripe passes from behind the eyes to the meta- 

 zona, sometimes interrupted, sometimes accompanied by an intuscation 



