114 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Mch., 'l2 



tip of the upper division, the latter slightly less than twice the depth 

 of the upper division. Ovipositor at least five-sixths the length of the 

 posterior femora, frequently longer and sometimes nearly equahng 

 them, surpassing their tips by an interval varying between one-fourth 

 and one-half its length, and surpassing the abdomen by one and one- 

 third to one and three-fifths the length of the latter. Subgenital plate 

 trigonal, not surpassing the ninth abdominal segment, rounded apical^'. 



Coloration: In the vast majority of specimens the general color is 

 a clear grass-green with a more or less conspicuous orange tip to the 

 abdomen and green cerci. Less frequently light brown individuals are 

 taken in which the orange tip of the abdomen is duller and the cerci 

 a pale olive. The following descriptions are based on the typical green 

 race. 



Male. — General color in life a bright, shiny grass-green with the 

 terminal half of the abdomen usually of a conspicuous light orange 

 hue; tegmina clear, slightly brownish with more or less of a trace of 

 greenish at the apex, considerably clearer than in X. brevipenne and 

 with scarcely a sign of the chestnut usually so marked in that species; 

 cerci a bright green, except in brown individuals in which they are 

 pale olive; dorsal stripe of the occiput and pronotum vandyke-brown, 

 darkest on the occiput, margined laterally with an indistinct streak of 

 yellowish, which on the pronotum shades into the green of the lateral 

 lobes; dorsal stripe of the abdomen much paler, narrowed posteriorly 

 and merging into the orange of the tip of the abdomen. All femora 

 green with numerous reddish-brown dots. Hind tibiae dusky-green. 

 Tarsi, brown. 



Female. — Much like the male, but with the orange more restricted, 

 confined to the extreme tip of the abdomen and the base of the oviposi- 

 tor; cerci, green. On the abdomen the dorsal stripe is bordered 

 laterally by a streak of greenish-yellow, which is cut off from the 

 green of the sides by an interrupted band or series of blotches of pale 

 brown. 



Distribution : In southern New Jersey and at Wood's Hole 

 I have taken this species exclusively in salt marsh, where it is 

 abundant on the short Spartinas covering the tidal flats. Its 

 preference for these maritime grasses led me to select the spe- 

 cific name, spartinae, here applied to it. Less frequently it 

 may be. found on the "black grass," Juncus gerardi, which 

 forms one of the characteristic plants of the lowlands border- 

 ing the marshes on the upland side. Only rarely does it appear 

 to stray inland and then only to that part immediately ad- 

 joining the salt marsh. 



