287 



Notes on Orthoptera and Orthopteran Habitats in 

 the Vicinity of Lafayette, Indiana. 



Hexky Fox. 



(Assistant. Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations, 



U. S. Bureau of Entomology.) 



Between September 3, 1912, and November 30 of the following year I 

 was stationed in pursuance of official duties at Lafayette, Tippecanoe 

 County. Indiana. At intervals during my stay there I made a series of 

 observations on the Orthoptera and Orthopteran habitats of the surround- 

 ing country which, incomplete as they are. nevertheless constitute a distinct 

 positive contribution toward an accurate knowledge of the faunal fea- 

 tures of the region. My earlier studies on the distribution of Orthoptera 

 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey 1 had impressed me with the importance 

 of detailed local lists of species in a scientific study of distribution. The 

 usual distribution as given in most works of reference is entirely too gen- 

 eral for accurate study, no regard being paid to local peculiarities of 

 distribution or to the relative abundance of the species in different parts of 

 its range. Take, for example, such a form as Psinidia fenesiralis. Its 

 range, as usually given, extends from Massachusetts to Florida. Texas, 

 northern Indiana and southern Minnesota. Such a statement would incline 

 one to think that the entire region south of say a line drawn from Cape 

 Cod to the southern extremities of the Great Lakes and thence to the 

 southern border of Minnesota would be characterized by the presence of 

 this species. As a matter of fact such is very far from being the case. 

 In the East, for instance, Psinidia fenestrates is regularly found only 

 in the low sandy belt fringing the coast, while in the interior it is of 

 extremely local occurrence, being met with only on widely scattered, 

 isolated deposits of loose sand. All positive data on this species indicates 

 (hat its distribution is conditioned by the presence of areas of loose sand. 



•Data on the Orthopteran Faunistics of Eastern Pennsylvania and Southern New^Jersey. Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1914, pp. 441-534. 



