MORGAN HEBARD 363 



VI. THE LEPIDUS, FEMUR-NIGRUM, ARTEMISIAE AND 

 MONTANUS GROUPS 



The above western groups of Melanoplus were known to us to 

 include species which had not been described. Six new species 

 are treated in the present paper. 



The penis had not been studied for any of the species and has 

 been found to furnish characters of the greater importance. 

 This is particularly true for the species of the Montanus Group, 

 where it was possible to state definitely that washingtonius, repe- 

 tinus and oreophilus were distinct species and not races only after 

 each was known to have a strikingly distinctive penis. 10 



The Lepidus Group 



To this group we now refer olamentke Hebard, solitudinis here 

 described, lepidus Scudder and ablutus Scudder. Of these ola- 

 mentke and solitudinis are clearly nearly related but quite widely 

 distinct from the other two species, which are themselves widely 

 distinct in certain characters but show agreement to different 

 degrees in many features. 



Following this group is the Saltator Group in which we have 

 placed first the very aberrant bernardinae Hebard. Below we 

 show that in two features of male genitalia solitudinis agrees more 

 closely with that insect than with any of the other species of 

 either of these groups. 



The first two species of the succeeding group, the Femur- 

 nigrum Group, are femur-nigrum Scudder and snowii Scudder, and 

 these again have certain features in common with some of the 

 species of the Lepidus Group and the Saltator Group. 



Melanoplus olamentke Hebard (PI. XXIV, figs. 1 and 2) 



139?-. Melanoplus olamentke Hebard, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, xlvi, p. 391, 



pl. 17, fig. 11. [cf; southern portion of Sonoma County, California.] 



This interesting insect is still known only from the two origin- 

 ally described males. We here figure the penis. 



10 The importance of the concealed male genitalia must in many cases, 

 however, not be overemphasized. Thus all of the species of the Femur-nigrum 

 Group are readily separable by external characters quite as striking as the 

 great differences of the penis which each also shows. 



It is further noteworthy that the structure of the penis would often be 

 actually misleading in associating species, as in some species of unquestionably 

 close relationship a wholly differently developed penis is found to exist. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, LX. 



