\'ol. Xxiii] ENTOMOLOGICAL XEWS. Ill 



Two Apparently Hitherto Undescribed Species of 



Xiphidium from the Salt Marshes of the Atlantic 



Coast of the United States (Orthop.). 



By Henry Fox, Ph.D., Ursinus Colleg-e, Collegeville, Pa. 



(Plates VIII and IX. i 



In the salt marshes of southern New Jersey (Cape May 

 County) I have taken examples of two species of Xiphidium, 

 which, so far as I have been able to ascertain from, the litera- 

 ture and an examination of the collections in the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, appear not to have been hither- 

 to recognized as valid species. Specimens of the present spe- 

 cies from New Jersey were included in the Academy collection 

 with X. brezipenne, while among some Florida specimens re- 

 ferred with a query to X. nigropleurnm Bruner, were exam- 

 ples of what appear to be larger geographical races of both the 

 new species. The following measurements and descriptions 

 are based on New Jersey, and in the case of X. spartinac on 

 Massachusetts material also. The Massachusetts specimens 

 were taken in a small salt marsh at Wood's Hole. 



Xiphidium spartinae n. sp. (Plate VIII). 



Measurements: Male — Length from fastigium to the tip of the supra- 

 anal plate, 10.8-13.S mm.; to the end of the pronotum, 4-5 mm.; to the 

 tips of the tegmina, 10-14, mostly I1-12 mm.; length of pronotum, 2.3-3.0 

 mm. ; of tegmina, 6.0-10.8, mostly about 7.0 mm. ; of posterior femora, 

 8.2-io.S mm.; of cerci, 1.5-1.8 mm. 



Female — Length from fastigium to tip of supra-anal plate, 11-15 

 mm. ; to the end of the pronotum, 4.3-5.5 mm. ; to the tips of the 

 tegmina, 9.5-12.0 mm.; to the tip of the ovipositor, 18-22 mm.; length 

 of pronotum, 2.5-3.0 mm. ; of tegmina, 5.5-8.0, mostly 7.0 mm. ; of 

 posterior femora, 9.2-11.2 mm.; of ovipositor (measured from the 

 base of the subgenital plate) 8.2-11.0 mm. 



Structural Characters: Closely resembling X. hrevipenne Scudder in 

 general size and proportions, but rather more slender and graceful 

 than that species. Fastigium of the vertex distinctly, though slightly, 

 elevated above the plane of the occiput; when viewed from above 

 barely constricted in the preocular region, slightly swollen in front, its 

 sides viewed from above subparallel. about one-third as wide in its 

 broadest part as the interspace between the eyes, its front margin con- 

 vexly truncate, extending in front of the eyes a distance equaling about 



