ORTHOPTERA OF NOVA SCOTIA. — PIERS. 337 



Genus Gryllus (Field and House Crickets). 



The separation of the native species or supposed species 

 or variants of this genus is a matter which presents great 

 perplexities to specialists, and the sul)ject has been far from 

 on a satisfactory basis. We therefore find considerable 

 difficulty in assigning a precise name to the form which 

 occurs in Nnva Scotia, and can only hope that further study 

 may enlighten us so that the matter may be satisfactorily 

 settled. The name herein used, will at least serve tentatively 

 to indicate the variant with which it agrees or is most closely 

 related. This is as near as we can new go. Otherwise we 

 should probabh^ have to adopt the opposite and more gener- 

 alizing course which will soon be referred to. If the course here 

 selected is open to criticism, it is probably because it is un- 

 j ustly taken to indicate a disposition to draw fine distinctions in 

 forms which intergrade or which have a strong tendency to do so. 



Some fifty-five years ago the forms of Gryllus of the 

 New England region bore several names. In 1862 Scudder 

 considered there were five native species there, namely 

 G. luctuosus Serv., ahbreviahis Serv., angustus Scudd., ne- 

 glectus Scudd., and niger Harr. In 1900 he reduced these 

 to four, namely G. abbreviatus (also including his narrow- 

 bodied angustus), luctuosus, pennsylvanicus Burm. (including 

 niger), and 7ieglectus. In 1902, in his monograph on the 

 genus (Psyche, vol. 9, p. 291), he brought the number still 

 further down to two, namely G. abbreviatus (including also 

 luctuosus and angustus), and -pennsylvanicus (including also 

 nigra and neglectus). Prof. Blatchley in 1903, Dr. E. M. 

 Walker (of Toronto) in 1904, and B. H. Walden in 1911, 

 in the main concurred with this. In 1907 Lutz in his paper 

 on "The Variation and Correlations of Certain Taxonomic 

 Characters of Gryllus," surprised us by concluding that species 

 in an anyway natural sense do not exist at all in the genus. 

 In 1915 J. A. G. Rehn and M. Hebard followed this with an 

 article on "The Genus Gryllus as found in America" (Proc. 



