34 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Jan., 'il 



Piers who has carefully studied some of the Nova Scotia 

 Orthoptera, found this Nemobius exceedingly abundant in the 

 fields around Halifax.* His excellent description of its inter- 

 mittent notes is as follows : "Its notes are one of the most 

 familiar sounds of autumn and are heard both during the day 

 and night. The stridulation is produced by lifting the wing 

 covers about 45 degrees above the abdomen and then shuffling 

 them together producing a sound resembling the word plee-e-e-e 

 plee-e-e-e plee-e-e-e or cree-e-e-e. It has been suggested that 

 these notes can be reproduced by taking a silver half dollar be- 

 tween the fingers and striking the coin with the edge of a 

 nickel." 



A very common little grasshopper in nearly all warm, sunny, 

 grassy situations is Stcnobothrus curtipennis Harris. The 

 writer found this insect particularly common in dry upland 

 fields with a sunny southern exposure. Small colonies were 

 always evident by their brief faint silken lispings several times 

 repeated at irregular intervals. This little Acridian is heard 

 only during the day. Its stridulations are produced by sawing 

 the inner surface of both thighs simultaneously against the 

 edges of the tegmina. Blatchley finds it more abundant in In- 

 diana in damp grounds near tamarack swamps. 



Melanoplus fcmoratus Burm., and Encoptolophus sordidus 

 Burm., are two common field insects in late summer and early 

 autumn. The former is clumsy and apparently unmusical. 

 The latter is a vigorous flyer and produces a lively crepitation 

 during its flight movements over the fields. 



Four fragile-bodied musical tree crickets occupy almost ex- 

 clusively the shrubbery and vines. These are all species of 

 Oecanthus, namely, 0. niveus, O. angustipcunis, 0. nigricornis 

 and 0. quadripuMctatus. 



Oecanthus niveus DeG. is usually called the fall cricket. 

 This beautiful pearly-winged creature takes up its abode in 

 our grape arbors, hedges, etc. Its notes are low, deep-toned. 



*. "Preliminary Notes on the Orthoptera of Nova Scotia." by 

 Harry Piers, in Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotia 

 Institute of Science, Vol. IX, 1895-96. 



