526 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
may be readily known by the prolonged pronotum, which covers 
the entire body. On account of this character, however, they 
are likely to be mistaken by the novice for "tree-hoppers" or 
Membracidae, a family of homopterous bugs, from which the 
absence of a sucking beak will at once distinguish them. 
The elongate pronotum provides protection for the delicate 
wings, replacing in that function the tegmina, which have been 
reduced to small oval scales. The wings are usually present and 
well developed, but in some species are not infrequently reduced in 
size and rarely are aborted ; the length of the pronotum also varies 
with the size of the wings. Both large- and small-winged indi- 
viduals occur in the same species, the relative number vary- 
ing widely. The prosternum projects forward in the shape of a 
muffler covering the mouth. An important character is the lack 
of claw-pads (arolia, pulvilli) between the tarsal claws. This is 
probably connected with the habit of resting on the ground 
instead of perching on plants, as is indicated by a comparison of 
the Oedipodine and Acridine Locusts. Another character sharply 
distinguishing the Pygmy Locusts from the others is the presence 
of but two segments in the front and middle tarsi. This feature, 
combined with those already mentioned, viz., peculiar pronotum, 
rudimentary tegmina, and lack of pulvilli, points to this group as 
being aberrant and in these particulars more specialized than the 
other Acridian subfamilies, perhaps even of family rank. 
With the probable exception of one Acridine {Eritettix simplex) 
these little Locusts are the only members of our Acridian fauna 
which hibernate in the adult stage. "On the approach of winter 
they hide beneath chunks, chips, rubbish, the loose bark of logs, 
or beneath the bottom rails of old fences. Sometimes a warm 
sunny day in mid-winter tempts them forth in numbers, and on 
such occasions the earth seems to swarm with them as they leap 
before the intruder, their hard bodies striking the dead leaves with 
a sound similar to that produced by falling hail. If the winter is 
an open one, with alternate periods of thawing and freezing, many 
of them doubtless perish. On the first warm daj'S of spring they 
can be collected by hundreds from any grass-covered hillside hav- 
ing a sunny southern exposure, or from the bogg}^ places along the 
margins of lakes and streams" (Blatchley, — Indiana). 
The coloration is protective, resembhng the soil background 
