Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
Quick search

Print ISSN 0033-2615
January 2008: Psyche has a new publisher, Hindawi Publishing, and is accepting submissions

Article beginning on page 195.
Psyche 8:195-196, 1897.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/8/8-195.html


The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

PSYCHE.
TWO NEW MELANOPLI FROM LES CHENEAUX ISLANDS, MICHIGAN.
BY W. S. BLATCHLEY, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. In August, 1897, after attending the
meeting of the Economic Entomologists
at Detroit, Michigan, I made a trip by
boat via Mackinac Island to Chicago.
From Mackinac, one of the most enjoy-
able and popular excursions is to the
Snow (Les Cheneaux) Islands lying
12 miles to the northeast, near the
northern shore of Lake Huron. These
islands are a picturesque group, one
hundred or more in number, covered
with primitive vegetation, and sepa-
rated by narrow channels. On several
of the islands summer hotels are
erected and are patronized by many of
the disciples of Izaak Walton, who find
in the network of channels the finny
tribe in untold numbers.
La Salle Island, on which I spent
cotettix ve~r~culaius (Kirby), Cam-
nda pellwcida (Scudd.), Melanoplus
6ivifLatus (Say), M. atlanis (Riley)
and AS. fe~nur-ru6r~m (De Geer)
were plentiful. In one or two other
localities were secured small numbers
of two additional species which have
proven to be undescribed, and which,
therefore, form the basis of the present paper.
Melano'plws kuroni sp, nov.
A brachyp-
terous melanoplian of medium or slightly above medium size; the female father stout, with tegminn half the length of abdomen; the male more slender, with tegmina cover- ing two thirds of abdomen; cerci tapering gradually from a swollen base to a slender apex; furcula very short, oblong, well sepa- rated, with rounded apices ; the hind tibiae a day, is one of the largest of the group and lower face of posterior femora blood-red in both sexes. (Belongs to the borckiiseries - probably a mile and a half long by
by Scudder.l
a Inore wide-densel~ Male, dark brown, marked with fuscous wooded with spruce, hemlock, cedar, above, beneath, clay-yellow. Head not pine,' birch and aspen, and with its prominent, the face testaceous, punctate shores abrupt and in most places 40 to
with fuscous, the labrum and palpi yellowish, feet above the water level.
only
the occiputfuscous; vertex moderately tumid, distinctly elevated above the pronotuin ; eyes alo~lg the imn1edkte shore in front and in size, lxlol.e in on either side of the Elliott House have the male: antennae brownish red. darkening u
any clearings been made.
Here, Cir-
towards the apex, of equal length in both



================================================================================

196 PSYCHB. [~pril 1898.
sexes. Pronotum distinctly enlarging poste- riorly (especially so in female) the disk fuscous or testaceous flecked with fuscous; the posterior lobe darkest; the lateral lobes with a post ocular piceons hand on their upper halfwhich extends to the metazona, the lower half testaceous; lateral carinae distinct but not prominent; the median carina sharp and distinct on the metazona, dull and indis- tinct on the prozona; front margin truncate, hind margin subangulate. Tegrnina a little more than twice as long as pronotum, over- lapping, suhlanceolate, the dorsal and lateral fields angularly separated, brownish, flecked with fuscous, which along the median line of the lateral field is more or less aggregated into a row of small quadrangular spots.
Hind femora stout, testaceous, faintly bifas- ciate with fuscous, the black of geniculation bordered proximally by a yellowish ring, the inferior face a bright blood-red; hind tibiae blood-red, the spines black except at base, ten or eleven in the outer series. Extremity of male abdomen strongly recurved, the sub- genital plate terminating in a short conical protuberance. Supra-anal plate ti-iangular with a narrow but deep median sulcus, which broadens basally and lies between sharp
walls; furcula consisting of a pair of short, oblong, distant denticulations with rounded apices, lying just outside of the walls of the median snlcus; cerci tapering from a thick- ened base to a slender, bluntly pointed apex, the distal half slightly curved forward. Female, much more robust and darker
colored, the face, disk of pronoturn, and outer face of hind femora, ii dark gray where testaceous in the male; the fuscous spots of tegmina larger and more prominent.
Average measurements: Length of body,
male, 20 mm., female, 28.'; mm.; antennae, male or female, 9 mm.; tegmina, male, 9.5 mm., female, 13.5 mm.; hind femora, male, 12.5 mm., female, 15 mm. Three males,
four females, La Salle Island, Michigan, Allgust 17, 1897.
One hundrecl yards west of the hotel
was a small clearing, an acre or more
in extent, where a cabin had formerly
stood. Along its margins and over
part of its area grew clumps of the
wild red raspberry (Rzdus s/rz''osus
Michx.), and among the numerous re-
mains of stumps were small bunches of
wire grass and the trailing vines of the dewberry. Here A/. hu~*oni had its
home, and the females, leaping lubber-
ly from one bunch of grass to another,
were readily secured, but the more
sprightly males would often have to be
chased quite a distance before their
capture was effected. Quite a number
of both sexes were taken, but unfortu-
nately the cyanide bottle was old and
failed to properly do its duty. When
the box in which they were dumped
was opened it was found that the
majority of the females had come to "
and had so chewed and broken their
dead companions, that only a few good
specimens were left.
Melanoplus islandicus sp. nov. Below the medium in size, the tegmina ovate and a
little shorter than the pronotnm in both sexes. Cerci of male short, styliform, taper- ing gadniilly from a rather broad base;
furcula a pair of very short, triangular den- ticulations. (Puer series as limited by
Scudder.)
Male, dark wood brown above; yellowish
below. Head not prominent; the face tes- taceous, varying to clay-yellow; the vertex but little elevated above the pronotum; eyes of both sexes of medium size, equally promi- nent; antennae uniform testaceous through- out; about three fourths the length of hind femora in both sexes, Pronotum expanding posteriorly but little in male, noticeably so in female, front margin truncate, hindmargin broadly rounded; lateral carinae indistinct



================================================================================

April 1898.1 PSYCHE. 197
in male, plainly evident in femde; median carina distinct on metdzona,, obsolete or but faintly visible on prozona; disk a uniform dark brown in two specimens, the prozona blotched with fuscous in the remaining two; the lateral lobes with a piccons band on their upper two-thirds which extends to metazona, then setting in again on meso-pleurite con- tinues about half the length of the abdomen, gradually fading posteriorly ; hordcrcd below on cheek and prozona with pallid, or testa- ceous in female, (ivory "i-hite in life, as is also the nietiz-pleurite). Tegmina uniform dark wood brown, narrowly
scpiu-atcd dor-
~~~~~y, a very little shorter than pronot~nn, oval in outline, breadth I$ in length with apex. iubangnlate; broader in female, breadth I* in length with apex rounded.
Hind femora
light testaceous on upper and outer faces, faintly and obliquely hifasciate with fuscous; yellowish on innerand lower faces with the fuscous bars plainer on the former, gcnicula- tion blackish. Hind tibiae pale red, the spines black, ten in outer series. Extremity of male abdomen entire, moderately recurved; supra-anal plate triangular, a little longcr than broad, the sides rather high, the median snlcus narrow, shallow, 2nd terminating near the middle of the plate; the furcula consist of a pair of short, flattish triangular projec- tions of the inner corners of the divided lateral hdves of the last dorsal segment and overlie the basal portion of the median sul- cus; cerci st~liform, a little shorter than the supra-anal plate, tapering strongly on basal half, gradually on apical half to the rather blunt apex.
Female, moderately robust, with colors
duller than in the male.
Avcras mesi.si.n-einents: Length of body, male, 15 mm., female, -2u mm.; antennae, male, 7 mm., female, 8 mm. ; tegmina, male, 4 mm., female, 5 mm.; hind femora, male, 9.5 mm., female, 11 mm. Three males, one female, La Salle Island, Michigan, August 17, 1897.
Two or three finales of islandicii-s
were taken from shady places about the
borders of the clearing, in which hzironi was found, but the ren~aining six or
eight secured were found along the
margins of a narrow pathway which
lcd thi'otigh the dense woods down the
eastern slope of the island. They
would leap from the pathway into the-.
mosses and liverworts bordering' its;
sides, and there remain quiet while the
intruder passed by. None were found
at a distance of more than ten feet from this pathway, though especial search
was made for them.
SOME NEW BYTHOSCOPINAE WITH NOTES ON OTHERS. BY C. F. BAKER, ALA. POLYTECHNIC INST. AUBURN, ALA. Bythoscopus fagi Fh. darker. The last ventral segment is slightly shorter than preceding and
This is as good a species as any, and very broadly bilobed. I havexanum- occurs sparingly throughout the north-
ber of males and females from [,the
east. It is small, length about 4 mm., vicinity of Washington, D. C., and the females rufous throughout, paler have seen others from New,,York and below, the males with the elytra much Massachusetts.



================================================================================


Volume 8 table of contents