298 ORTHOPTERA OF NOVA SCOTIA. PIERS. 



Description. — Prosternal spine nearly cylindrical, the tip bluntly rounded; 

 wing-covers somewhat longer than abdomen, slightly surpassing tip of hind 

 femora; apex of subgenital plate entire (not notched); male cerci at least three 

 times as long as its middle breadth, the apical half less than half as broad as its 

 extreme base (i. e., cerci broad at base and markedly tapering at end). 



Colour. — Nova Scotian specimens. Variable; usually brownish above; 

 tea-green (greenish olive-gray) or ohvaceous on front and sides of head and 

 thorax; sides and under surface of abdomen mostly dirty cream-white or 

 grayish; a yellowish line on side of thorax from insertion of wing-cover to 

 insertion of hind leg ; a broad black bar extends from eye backward onto lateral 

 front part of pronotum, often inconspicuous in female. Wing-covers hair- 

 brown to broccoli-brown, usually very obscurely spotted with fuscous along 

 basal half of median area. Hind femora raw-umber brown, clouded with 

 dark fuscous which usually forms two oblique bars on upper edge; lower edge 

 yellowish with pale poppy-red on outer part of edge; knee black. Hind 

 tibiae almost always poppy-red; spines black. Occasionally a specimen is 

 found whose general colour is yellowish olive-buff, and the markings much 

 paler than in normal specimens. 



Measurements. — Male: body, 16-23 mm.; antennae, 7-10 mm.; pronotum, 

 4.5 mm.; wing-covers, 13-20 mm.; hind femora, 11-13 mm. Nova Scotian 

 males, 21-28 Oct., 1917: body, 20-21 mm.; antennae, • 8-9 mm.; pronotum, 

 4.3 mm.; wing-covers, 16-16.5 mm.; hind femora, 11 mm.; hind tibiae, 9-9.5 

 mm. Female: body, 18-28 mm.; antennae, 7-9 mm.; pronotum, 5 mm.; 

 wing-covers, 16-23 mm.; hind femora, 11-15 mm. 



Bange. — This very common species ranges over most of Canada and the 

 UnitedStates into central Mexico: from P. E. Island, Nova Scotia, New Bruns., 

 Que., Ont., Man., and Br. Columbia, south to N. Car., Tenn., Miss., Texas, 

 central Mexico, Ariz., Nev., and southern Calif. It thus occurs from the 

 Canadian to the upper part of the Lower Austral Zone — a very extensive 

 range which is also about that of M. atlanis. It is exceedingly abundant 

 everywhere in New Eng. It has not been found in Newfoundland. 



Occurrence in Nova Scotia. — The Red-legged Locust was 

 first reported from Nova Scotia by F. Walker in 1870, from 

 specimens collected no doubt by lieut. Redman, probably 

 about 1821. Although at that time M. atlanis had not been 

 differentiated from it, yet the greater abundance of M. 

 femur-ruhrum about Halifax makes it fairly clear that the 

 latter species was referred to. 



This species is excessively abundant about Halifax, 

 where it is probably our most common orthopteran exclusive 

 of the Crickets; and it is more or less common elsewhere 

 throughout the province. It has been observed by C. B. 

 Gooderham, myself and others in Inverness, Victoria, Pictou, 

 Cumberland, Colchester, Hants, Halifax, Kings, Annapolis, 

 Digby, Yarmouth and Queens Counties, and I think I have 



