192 NORTH AMERICAN MELANOPLI (ORTHOPTERA) 



place even in the same environment; sphenarioides is, however, 

 much more generally distributed, aptera apparently preferring 

 slightly more xeric conditions and particularly associated with 

 oak shoots and dwarf oaks in the undergrowth where it occurs. 

 Only in central western and southwestern peninsular Florida is 

 aptera supplanted by a similar appearing species, hubbelli, in 

 which the penis plainly shows that higher than racial status 

 exists. In addition, the particularly xeric areas of sandy scrub 

 in peninsular Florida are, in different limited areas of quite 

 similar environment, inhabited by three additional strikingly 

 distinctive species. 



Throughout the Sabalian Zone 21 Aptenopedes is known ex- 

 cept in the lowlands of South Carolina and southeastern North 

 Carolina (but briefly invading the Lower Austral Zone in cen- 

 tral eastern Georgia). Numerous assemblages of species and 

 races peculiar to that Zone are likewise encountered in the Puer 

 Group of the genus Melanoplus 22 and in the genus Belo- 

 cephalusP 



Contrary to Scudder's statement, none of the species of Ap- 

 tenopedes are actually apterous, all having minute, vestigial, 

 scale-like tegmina, except sphenarioides and robusta, in which 

 the tegmina are very small and very narrow, but extend to or 

 across the face of the large tympanum. 



The male subgenital plate (more accurately termed the geni- 

 tal lobe of the ninth sternite) is reduced externally to a narrow 

 collar beyond the distal margin of the very large ninth sternite, 

 revealing dorsad a large pallium. When the pallium is drawn 

 back and the subgenital plate is deflexed, however, the latter is 

 found to be developed internally in a very unusual manner. 

 Large fleshy lobes are attached to it dorso-laterad, hinged to it 

 so that they can swing upward and outward. This hinging is 

 accompanied by intricate folding in sphenarioides, but is much 

 more simple in the other species. 



21 Proposed by Rehn and Hebard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1916, p. 

 102. 



22 Hubbell, Univ. of Michigan, Mus. Zool. Misc. Publ. 23, pp. 1 to 64, 

 (1932). 



23 Hebard, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, in, pp. 147 to 186, (1926). 



