MORSE: ORTIIOITERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 513 
tion is primarily protective, but such is really the case. When 
at rest upon the trunks of white-pine trees, wliich are often griz- 
zled with gray-green lichen thaUi and other low forms of plant life, 
the exposed colors of the insect blend surprisingly well with the 
background. I have repeatedly gazed for several minutes at an 
individual basking in the autumn sunshine and only become con- 
scious of others near it by systematic search with eyes and atten- 
tion attuned to that particular pattern of coloring. It is with a 
feeling of astonishment in such a case, that one discovers that he 
has overlooked perhaps a half dozen others equally as conspicuous 
(or invisible) within a yard of the one first to catch his attention. 
But the fact remains, and fortunately for him, the Locusts remain 
also, trustfully waiting for him to pass on. 
On a closer approach, they shrink back, sidle away, and finally 
leap, doubtfully and weakly, owing to their slender legs, to a short 
distance, rarely, when alarmed, taking several leaps in succession. 
However, temperature affects their temperament markedly, as 
with all insects and reptiles, and under sufficient stimulus a con- 
siderable degree of activity is shown. 
The female Locust, when about to lay her eggs, seeks out some 
crack or worm-hole in the bark of a dead trunk, thrusts in her ab- 
domen, and places the egg-mass therein, plugging up the hole, or 
placing the mass on the under side of the bark when it is raised 
from the wood. (See figures, Plate 27, showing three ma.sses laid 
from one hole, and in hole of borer in old wood.) I have found 
three masses thus laid beneath loose bark through one borer exit- 
hole; others in the cell from which a ribbed pine-borer {Rhagium 
lineatum) had emerged; and another filling up the hole in the wood 
of the trunk made by some other longicorn larva. The dull form 
of the ovipositor indicates that this method of using ready-made 
holes has superseded that of actively excavating them, unless 
possibly in some soft nidus like that of the decayed wood of 
stumps and trunks. 
Sometimes the hole is plastered over with a brown gummy mass 
covering the eggs. Oviposition takes place late, as would be 
expected from the lateness of the species in maturing, in Septem- 
ber and October. 
This Locust has been taken in Brunswick, Me. ; North Conway, 
N. H.; Vermont; Amherst, Andover, Dover, Sherborn, Waltham, 
