1892.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 33 



Springs, I found that most of the larvae, which had not ceased 

 feeding when I left and which I had tied out in bags on their 

 food-plants, had been cut off and destroyed by a crazy Indian, 

 called " Loco" by the children of the valley. This made a rather 

 disastrous ending to an otherwise quite successful collecting 



ON THE SPECIES OF (ECANTHUS Serv. 

 By Chas. a. Hart, Champaign, 111. 



Although the snowy, or tree cricket is commonly referred to 

 as CEcanthtis niveus, there are three or four species quite com- 

 mon and widely distributed, one of which, QL. fasciaius, is in 

 this State (Illinois) more abundant than niveus. I have just had 

 occasion to examine a large series of specimens in the collection 

 of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History including all 

 the species yet recorded from Illinois. After a fairly satisfactory 

 assortment of the specimens with the aid of the characters indi- 

 cated by Prof Jerome McNeill in " Psyche," vol. vi, p. 6, I noted 



that the coloration of the antennae 

 /j^ /"SS \ I ^" each species had a perfectly dis- 



/ "/ I f (%^\ fillet and invariable pattern of its 



/HlB| r'^"'^ 1 ' I o^^'i'i i^ ^11 specimens examined. 

 \M ^ ll w ^:^ — ^ This character is not affected by 



\ W I I j^ sex, and seems to be the most re- 



■^^ L "^ ' ^^ liable and ready means of separa- 



ting the species. Some of these 

 changes of pattern were noticed 

 by Dr. Fitch in his description of 

 Qicanthus niveus (Third Report 

 on Insects of N. Y. p. 95) as char- 

 acterizing varieties of that species, 

 but the specific identity of these 

 forms seems now well established. 



[explanation of CUT.j XT7i-j. i i T\ n \. ^u 



„ , . . , ^ ^ , (Jb. bipunctatus Ue G. has the 



Basal joints of antennae of (Ecanthus, ^ 



■under surface. (The difference in the su- apCX of the SCape prolonged be- 



tur^ is due to the changing appearance ^Q^^\y forming an acUte blackish 

 of the sutural membrane in different po- 1 r • 



sitions of the antennse) I and 2, C£./«i- tOOth. The forC wmgS are COU" 



ciatHs: 3, CE. bipunctatus : 4, CE. niveus; jointlv marked with a fuscous spot 



5, (E. aitgustipennis ; 6, CE. latipennis. '• , 1 



near middle, and a large basal spot. 

 CE. fasciatus Fitch, presents an extraordinary range in depth 



