372 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



which had survived hght frosts. In 1906 it came to maturity 

 about June twenty-third at Lakeside, Michigan, and from that 

 time on it began to be more noticeable in the damp meadows 

 some distance back on our experiment grounds. I found it 

 occasionally appearing on the light sandy earth covered with 

 a light humus and grasses. 



This area is shown in the foreground in the view of the 

 habitat of the Orthoptera, though it was not the typical 

 abiding place of this species. On sunny days I often observed 

 the interesting males stridulating. In the lower left-hand 

 figure he is shown in the position assumed during this per- 

 formance. The very faint sound he makes is made by the 

 friction of the thighs against the outer surface of the wing- 

 covers. This species is distributed over the northern United 

 States and Canada, east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 

 or covering the transitional and Canadian zones. Southward, 

 it ranges through Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, to the 

 mountainous regions of North Carolina, the latter locality 

 being recently determined by Morse. The scientific name of 

 this insect is Stenobothrus curtipennis. 



The Clouded Locust 



When looking for the clouded locust it may be sought in 

 dry, grassy pastures and old stubble fields. These places seem 

 to possess the ideal surroundings. It arrives at maturity late 

 in summer, or about the first week in August. This species 

 is very inconspicuous when hiding among the herbage on the 

 ground, or while arising into the air in flight. When it is on 

 the earth its dull rusty mottlings of yellow and dark shades 

 serve most admirably in concealing it, while in flight its glazed 

 smoky wings, which are slightly yellowish and transparent 

 toward the base, do not attract one's attention like the con- 

 trasting yellow and black wings of such species as the mottled 

 sand locust. 



In his work on "The Orthoptera of Indiana," Blatchley 

 describes the habits of this species as follows: "It frequents 

 only dry upland timothy and clover meadows, blue grass 

 pastures, roadsides, etc. When living in woodland pastures 



