A.P. Morse.
Monecphora bicincta (Say) in New England.
Psyche 28:27-28, 1921.

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3 9211 Morse-Monecphora Bicincta in 'New England 27 MONECPIIORA BICISCTA (SAY) IN NEW ENGLAND. BY ALBERT P. MORSE,
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
The black frog-hopper or spittle-bug, Monecphora bicincta var. ipipecta Fitch, is a common insect locally in New England *
(Wellesley,-A. P. M.; Dedham and Bridgewater, Mass., and Squam Lake, N. H.-Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.) and I have an example from Harrisburg, Pa. From southern New Jersey (t. C. W. Johnson) southward its place-is taken by the typical banded form- (M. Mcincta), marked by several narrov transverse vermilion stripes; of which the two crossing the elytra ;are especially notice- able.
Van Diizee records the species (Cat. Hemipt., p. 509) from six- teen states (Mass. to Iowa, Fla., Tex., also Mex. and W. I.), but does not say which form isreferred to.
During the past summer, while collecting orthoptera in Maine, I found the banded form at Norridgewock (Aug. 19) in the cen- tral western part of the state, and later took the unmarked variety at Naples, Norway, and several points between there and Norridge- wock. Finding that the species was not reported by Prof. Osborn in his life-hidories of the Cercopidas of Maine, I paid more atten- tion to it thereafter, and secured specimens at various additional points in southwestern Maine, including Gorham, Standish, Lim- '
ington, Lyman, Sanford, Lebanon and Eliot. All were of the un- marked variety.
Why the banded form alone should be found at the Norridge- wock locality/ and only there (in New England), at the northern limit of- the distribution of the species (as far as now known), is as yet an unsolved problem.
An examination of the material at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge resulted in finding a single additional ex- ample from New England of the banded form, labeled, "Mass., S. ~enshaw." Mr. Henshaw tells me that this was doubtless secured in Brookline, Mass., in the early period of his collecting. So far as my memory recalls in the past, and certainly from Pu&e 28:27-28 (192 1). hup Ytpsychu einclub orgt28128-027.htd



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28 Psyche [February
observations made this summer, this insect is associated with the bunch-grass (Andropogon scoparius) and feeds on its sap. This grass is often the dominant species on the sterile, gravelly soils of the coastal plain of New England and is widely distributed in the region inhabited by the insect. Adult insects were commonly ob- served (Aug. 19 to Sept. 18, 1920) perched upon the flowering -
stalks one to two feet from the ground. On one occasion the stalk was even plucked and the bug examined through a half-inch lens while still busily sucking, during which time, at irregular intervals (5 to 50 seconds) it discharged from its abdomen tiny droplets of a clear liquid.
Adults have been taken in New England from the last week in July till the latter part of September. They could not be found this year at Wellesley in mid-October, perhaps because the grass stems were then hard and dry. The young stages will probably be found, if looked for, in the leafy tufts that characterize the growth of this grass earlier in the season. All of the New Eng- land specimens which I have seen are decidedly smaller in size than those from the South.




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