R. K. Xabolks 14:3 



I h.ive collected in the Mississippi Valley sind on the (Jiilf C<mst;d 

 Plain of Louisiana and Texas nine distinct true breeding forms of this 

 genus which are being used in the breeding experiments (Plate VI, 

 tigs. 1 — 9). There seems to be uncertainty as to the taxonomic 

 position to be given these forms. It has been suggested that they 

 be called varieties and again that they be designated as biotypes, and, 

 with best reason, it seems to me, that they be called species outright. 

 Pending further consideration of this matter, it seems sufficient for the 

 purposes of this paper to give them names descriptive of the colour 

 patterns, leaving to the future the question jis to whether or not these 

 designations are to become the specific names of the forms. However, 

 the names will be tentatively submitted as though they are the specific 

 ones of the genus Paratettix, Bol., the taxonomic position which I 

 believe will eventually be accorded them. The nine forms, all of them 

 new, except one, are as follows: Paratettix texanus, Hanc. (Plate VI, 

 fig. 1); P. leiiconotiis, n. sp. (fig. 2); P. leucothorax, n. sp. (fig. 3); 

 P. panctofemorata, n. sp. (fig. 4); P. luteolineatus, n. sp. (fig. 5); 

 P. rufrolineatiis, n. sp. (fig. 6); P. melanothorax, n. sp. (fig. 7); 

 P. liUeo7iotatus, n. sp. (fig. 8); and P. nigronotatas, n. sp. (fig. 9). 

 A more detailed taxonomic description of these and several other forms 

 used and something of their habits will be presented in a separate 

 account. 



The characters used in this investigation have been the colour 

 patterns of the pronota and of the femora of the jumping legs (Plate 

 VI), and the length of the pronotum and wings, whether short, inter- 

 mediate, or long (Fig. 2, p. 161). The final colour pattern is clearly 

 indicated soon after the moult which ushers in the second instar, and 

 there are no perceptible changes in it during the remainder of the life 

 of the individual. The wing and pronotum lengths cannot be deter- 

 mined until the individual becomes adult, and are not in any way 

 correlated with the colour patterns. The forms and their hybrids 

 interbreed freely, and reciprocal crosses have invariably produced 

 identical results. All the females used in the experiments recorded 

 here were virgin, excepting the two heterozygous texanus-leucothorax 

 females from nature used in the beginning of Exp. I (p. 145). 



Gliiss cylinders, 8''xl2" and 9"xl5" respectively, set in pots of 

 earth and covered with 12- or 24-mesh pearl wire, seem to make the 

 most convenient cages (Fig. 1). It is found best to overlay the surface 

 of the earth in the cages with a very rich vegetable mould, or }:)eat 

 substiince. The smaller cages covered with the 12-inch mesh wire are 



10—2 



