304 ORTHOPTERA OF NOVA SCOTIA. PIERS. 



14.2) mm. I have taken females which have measured 40 mm. in total 

 length, and probably still longer ones can be met with. 



Range: — Melanoplus bivittatus ranges generally from near Hudson Bay 

 to N. Car. and Cahf., and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. — The red-legged 

 phase {M. b. femoratus) ~n-hich is said to be a seaboard and northern colour- 

 phase, occurs from Newfoundland (Port aux Basques, Hebard), P. E. Isld., 

 Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ont., Man., and Br. Columbia, south through New 

 Eng. to N. Car., Ind., 111., Colo., and Calif., it being the only variant found 

 along the Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific slope south of Washington. This 

 phase therefore ranges from the Canadian (or a little beyond) to probably 

 the upper Austral Zone.— The tji^ical phase (M. b. bivittatus) is of interior 

 distribution, ranging probably from southern-central and western Canada to 

 the Gulf of Mexico, being unknown on the Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific 

 coast south of Waslungton. The ranges of the two forms therefore overlap 

 in the central region of the continent. 



Remarks. — ^The late Dr. Scudder always held that femoralus was speci- 

 fically distinct from bivittatus, contending that the former is a seaboard 

 . and northern species, wliile the latter is an interior one, the ranges of the two 

 overlapping in the central areas, and he so treated them as distinct in his 

 exhaustive "Re\4sion of the MelanopU" (Proc. U. S. Nat. INIus., 20, 1898) 

 for reasons there stated. He continued to maintain this, I think, until the 

 last, M. femoralus appearing as a separate species in his "Catalogue of De- 

 scribed Orthoptera" (1901). Blatchley of Indiana (1903), Walden of Con- 

 necticut (1911), Somes of Minnesota (1914), and many others, particularly 

 those of the central portions where the two ranges overlap, consider them 

 to be but trivial colour-phases of the same species, the differences being of 

 little diagnostic value. "^Tiile going with recent opinion in this, we may for 

 the present retain the name /emoraft/s as a mere varietal appellation conveni- 

 ently indicating the colour variant which is found here. 



Occurrence in Nova Scotia. — The very well known Red- 

 legged Yellow-striped Locust, one of our largest ortjbopterans, 

 was first reported from Nova Scotia, as Caloptenus bivittatus, 

 by F. Walker of the British ]\Iuseum in 1870, no doubt from 

 specimens collected about 1821 by Lieut. Redman (Cat. 

 Derm. Salt., 4, p. 678). 



Only the colour-phase femoralus, with bright red tibiae, 

 is found here. All specimens in the collection of the Agri- 

 cultural College, Truro, have bright coral-red tibiae except 

 one in which they are black passing Into bright red less than 

 half-way down, and this may be owing to discoloration after 

 being placed in the cabinet. Mr. (Gtooderham says his 

 examples from Colchester, Annapolis and Yarmouth Counties 

 all have red or purplish tibice. All the specimens I have 

 observed about Halifax, also have these members red, as 

 well as others I have seen from Hants, Kings, and Yarmouth 



