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Psyche 6:3-9, 1891.

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PSYCHE.
A LIST OF THE ORTHOPTERA OF
ILLINOIS.-I.
BY JEROME MCNEILL, FAYETTEVILLE, ARK.
THE following list is an enumeration
of all the species of Orthoptera known
to me to occur within the State, as well as those species reported by others but
not identified by the writer. Names
of the last mentioned class are preceded by an asterisk and accompanied by the
name of the person upon whose author-
ity they are inserted. If the species is uncommon, one or more localities in
which it has been or is reported to have been captured will be given. The
earliest date, known to me, of the ap-
pearance of each species will be given
and unless otherwise stated this date
will be understood to be the recorded
time of their appearance or capture
at Rock Island, 111.
I. Tridactyhis apicalis Say. Urba-
na, July 7. Quincy, Sept. 6. Found
in abundance on a sand bar in the
river at the lust mentioned place by
Mr. C. A. H~rt of Illinois Univer-
sity.
*2. Tridactyhs terminalis Uhler.
Southern Illinois (Thomas, Uhler) .
3. Tridactylus minu/us Scudder.
Champaign, Aug. 20.
4. Gryllotalpa columbia Scudder.
This "long-winged" mole-cricket I
have found in a single locality on Rock
Island. This place is between Fort
Armstrong and the Powder House on
the southern side of the Island. Here
the shore is flat and sandy and. thickly strewn with fragments of bark and
wood brought down by the river from
the saw-mills at Moline and left on the
low shores by the receding water. My
attention was attracted the first time I had the good fortune to walk that way
by observing that from many of these
pieces of bark which were within a few
feet of the water a number of little
ridges radiated in crooked lines which,
however, never seemed to intersect each
other.
An exploration of these tunnels
revealed at the end of almost every one
opened a cricket large or small. Au-
gust.
5. Gryllotalpa borealis Burin. I
have found this species as early as June 25 in eastern Indiana. Its first appear- ance about Moline is early in August.
At this season of the year at least it is solitary as all the specimens I have cap- tured have been the sole occupants of
burrows. Mr. Scudder has compared
its song to that of "the distant sound of frogs." I have been struck with the
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PSYCHE. January 1891.1
resemblance of its note to that of &can- tJius niveus. To my ear the only dis-
cernable difference is that of pitch.
This song is a simple chirp, very low
in pitch for an orthopteron, repeated at intervals of about a second. This spe-
cies can be made to
eject from
their
cerci a grayish viscid substance and
this substance can be thrown several
inches. Of what use this faculty is to
the insect I can only conjecture as I
have seen the occurrence but twice.
That it is protective in character is very probable as the phenomenon has only
occurred in my experience when the
insect has been very much maltreated.
The ejected mass does not have any
noticeably bad odor and if it is used to repel the attacks of enemies it is most
probably efficient because it entangles
the feet and perhaps covers the eyes of
the unfriendly insect.
6. Gryllus luctuosus Serv. Very
rare. I have captured a single specimen
at the electric light and on one occasion I allowed a long winged black speci-
men which could not be referred to any
other species, to escape me in the long
grass. I have seen another specimen
taken by Mr. C. A. Hart at the electric
light in Urbana, June I 7. All the speci- mens I have seen from Illinois are de-
cidedly smaller than specimens from
Florida and than those whose dimensions
are given by Saussure.
7. Gr-ylhs pemsylvanicus Burm.
Moline, June 3. This species may be,
as Mr. Saussure is inclined to believe, a short-winged form of the preceding
species. Except for the shortened or
abortive wings it is scarcely different
from G. luctuosus, which is abundant
southward and very rare in the northern
States and Canada, From Maryland to
Massachusetts and Northern Illinois
G. pennsylvanicus is common but
it is not reported from Canada and
is probably not found as far north as
Maine. The species of the genus are so
extremely variable and consequently so
difficult to separate that the whole sub- ject is in much doubt.
This confusion
has been so great that I am inclined to
think that the habits of entirely different species have been confused so as to lead to serious misunderstanding and worse
confusion. I advance my opinion on this
point however with the greatest hesita-
tion and I am free to acknowledge
that I do not feel entirely sure in my
own mind of my conclusions.
In speaking of the habits of these
01-thoptera a late writer, Mr. Lawrence
Bruner, says: "Usually most of our
North American Grylli live singly or in
pairs in burrows which they dig for
themselves. These are used as retreats
during the daytime and serve as shelter
from ordinary inclemencies of weather.
These burrows are generally forsaken
about mid-su mmer for some sort of above- ground shelter. From this time on,
until fall, they appear to be more social and live in colonies under various sorts of rubbish. Grain-shocks are a favorite
haunt for them, and since twine has
been used for binding, the crickets have been quite troublesome by cutting the
bands. During late summer and fall
the females commence preparations for




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January 1891 .] PSYCHE. 5
the continuance of their kind, by thrust- ing their long, slender ovipositors into the loose soil and dropping their eggs.
These sometimes hatch the same year,
but, as a rule, lie over until the follow- ing spring. The young generally live
above ground, where they hide among
fallen leaves, grasses, and other debris, though sometimes they also creep into
chinks and crevices in the earth."
My limited observation leads me to
conclude that the description just quoted applies to 110 single species. The burrow making species is G. $ennsyZvanicus
and, probably, G. Zuctuosus. The social
crickets are G. abbreviatus and G.
neylectq which is probably a variety
of the first. Briefly recounted, the life history of G. abbreviates is as follows. The eggs hatch in this latitude in July, and the first adults appear as early as
the second week in August. During
every stage of life they are social, feed- ing together, seeking shelter in company and when egg laying time comes, in
October, the females collect by hundreds in some suitable locality, an abandoned
or little used roadway suits them well,
and each lays several hundred eggs in
an irregular mass. After this duty is
performed their business on this planet
seems to be finished and they succumb
to the cold, none surviving the winter.
The eggs do not hatch until the follow-
ing July or if in rare cases they do they probably perish with cold.
In Florida, GrylZus Zuctuosus attains
its growth in December. G. pennsyi-
vanicq which is probably merely the
short winged form of the former, is not
found in the southern States and in the
middle States it does not have time to
conlplete its metamorphoses in the fall
and consequently survives the winter in
the larval and pupal stages. In the
spring it soon completes its transforma- tions and by the first of June its note is heard. They dig burrows which they
occupy probably as long as they live.
During the months of June and July
the meadows and pastures and especially
open woods pastures are filled with the
music of their song. Ordinarily in
favorite haunts every square rod will
contain at least one burrow and these
burrows are, of course, sometimes much
more abundant. The males never seem
to stray away from their houses in the
daytime and are frequently found within
the entrance, while singing. Where
their eggs are laid or when I have never been able to discover, but I have never
seen the young before September, so
that the eggs are probably laid about the time the young of G. abbreviatus are
hatching.
G. jhwzsylvanicus is so far as I have
observed never a social species not even I think in the larval and pupal stages.
G. abbreviatus on the other hand are
always social and are never burrow
inhabiting, although it is quite probable that on occasion they seek the burrows
of their congeners for protection.
Mr.
Scudder says in his paper on The distri- bution of insects in New Hampshire, "At
Jefferson in 1867 no chirp of a Gryllus
was heard until August 12, although
they often commence their song in
Massachusetts in June." If I am right




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PSYCHE. [January 1891.
this absence of the cricket serenade dur- ing the months of June and July and
early August is accounted for by the
fact that this locality is north of the
range of G. $mzsyZvanicus. This
species has not been, I think, reported
from Canada and G. luctuosus as rare,
so that if I have not erred there should not be heard anything more than an
occasional cricket chirp there before the middle of August. The only invariable
and easily recognized difference between G. $ennsy?vanicus and G. abbreviaffis
is that in the females of the former the ovipositor is decidedly shorter than the body, in the latter this organ is nearly or quite as long as the body.
8. GryZZ7-is.abb~eviatusServ. Mo-
line, August 14. Very abundant.
9. GryZZus domesticus Linn. Mo-
line and Urbana. Very rare, a single
specimen having been taken at each
place at the electric light.
io. Nemobius fasciatus De Geei\
Abundant everywhere, especially in
blue grass meadows. It is very coin-
mon at the electric light about July
27. The wingless form vittatzis Harr. is at least in the northern part of the Stiite more abundant than fasczatus.
I I. Anaxipha j3dicaria Burm.
Taken in a single locality on Ruck
River near Colona, Rock Island Co.,
about August 20.
I 2. PhyZ/uscirttisfulc/2eZ/zis Uhler.
A few specimens have been captured at
Pine Hills, September 14, 1883.
13. Oecan/hzis nivezis De Gcer.
Abundant throughout the State from
the latter part of July to the late fall. There are five species of Oecanthus
in Illinois which are very widely disti-i- buted in North America. Two of these,
Oecanthus fasciatus Fitch and Oecan-
thus angustifennis Fitch, have gener-
ally been considered varieties of Oecan- thus niveus De Gees, but several years
observation of this genus has led me to
conclude that they are quite distinct in structure, habits, and song and they must therefore rank as species.
The last named species can be distin-
guished from the two former by its
broader wing covers, the width of the
dorsal field compared with the length
being about one to two in latipemis
and niveus, one to three in ang-usti-
tennis and two to five in fasciatus.
The average of these dimensions is in
the first mentioned species ,p by .62
inches ; in the second .26 by inches ;
in the third .16 by .44 inches ; and in
the last .18 by .46 inches.
Niveus can
usually be distinguished from all the
other species by its color, which is ivory white with almost no perceptible infusion of green in the male but the elytra of the female may be quite decidedly green.
In angztstifennis the male as well as
the female, probably. is deeply suffused with green. Infasciatus the greenish
tint is also predominant in the wings
and elytra but the other parts of the body vary in color from deep black to ivory
white varied with fuscous. In typically
colored specimens however the head and
pronotuin are whitish with three dis-
tinct fuscous or black stripes, extending' one over the top of the head and pi-o-
notnm and the other two on the lateral




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January 1891 .] å´ PSYCHE. 7
lobes of the pronotuin and upon the
sides of the head. .La;'i$e7å´zni differs in coloration distinctly from the two last
mentioned species but only slightly from wiveus.
Like the latter its general color
is ivory white with the elytra perfectly transparent but it is distinct from niveus and the other two species in having the
head and basal half of the
antennae suf-
fused wit5 pink or light brown.
It also
lacks very generally if not always tlie
small fuscous spots which are to be
found always in the other species,
except in the case of the black variety
of fasciatus, on the lower face of the
two basal joints of the antennae.
Nveus is also distinpished from all
other species by its proportionally longer maxillary palpi. This disproportion is
most apparent in the ultimate joint,
which is not only relatively but actually longer than the same joint in la//$ennis, a decidedly larger insect. These dimen-
sions are for the two species respectively : fifth joint I .5 mm and I .4 mm ;
fourth
ioint I .3 mm and 1.3 mm ; third joint
1.6 mm and 1.7 mm.
Finally in niveus
the outer or fourth curved oblique nerve at the base of the elytra is more angular than in any of the other species and con- sequently the distance between the third and fourt~i nerves which in the other
species is about equal to that between
the first and seconil, and the second and third nerves, is in niveus much greater. In addition to the distinctions already
mentioned fasciafm has longer antennae
than the other species have, since these organs are rather more than two and one
half times the total length of the body, and the larger spines at the tip of the
posterior tibiae are unusually strong and acute.
The ovipositor of the female is
also plainly distinct from the perfectly straight ovipositor of niveus in being
distinctly turned up at the tip. The
maxillary palpi also offer distinct ,
specific characters in the proportionally short fourth joint and in the s~ibclav.ite fifth joint which in the other species
is fusiform. Angzist+ennis differs
from the other species in its small
head and slender pronotum, which in the
female especially is decidedly narrowed
anteriorly instead of being of equal width throughout as in the females of G e m
and latifennis. The hind legs are pro- , portionally longer and more slender than they are in the allied species and the
post-tibia1 apical spines are so weak as to be soinewhcit difficult to count with the unaided eve.
These species differ from one another
as markedly in song as in structure.
That of nive/ts is the well known
t- r-r-r-e-e : t-r-r-r-e e, repeated with out pause or variation about seventy
times in a minute. In the vicinity of
Davenport, Iowa, this song is heard as
early as the twenty-third of July and it continues until the persistent little song- sters are killed by the heavy frosts of the late fall. This song is heard only at
night and occasionally on cloudy days
but in the latter case it is only an isolated song and
never the full chorus of the
night song produced by many wings
whose vibrations in exact unison produce that characteristic bbrhythmic beat "-as Burroughs has happily phrased it. It




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8 PS2'-m2?E. å´ [January 1891.
is this effect of many united songs that has led the same author to spsak of
"purring" crickets.
Thoreau calls it the
"slumbrous breathing" and the ^intenser
dream" of crickets, but Hawthorne has
given it a more spiritual interpretation than either Burroughs or Thoreau. He
describes it as "audible stillness" and
declares that "if moonlight could be
heard it would sound like that." Prof. C. V. Riley says of the song of latipennis
that it "is continuous and recalls the
trilling of a high pitched dog whistle in the distance." He also says "The com-
mingled shrill of this species recalls also the distant crocking of frogs in the
spring." The song of fasciafus is also a high trill continuing usually for several minutes with the intervals between the
trills of very irregular length.
It sings
all day as well as all night apparently
in the briglit sunshine as well as on-
cloudy days and in the dusk of evening.
Angustipeks has a song which re
sembles that of fasciatus in some degree, but it is very much fainter and lasts for about five seconds with an equal iiiterval between the trills
Mr. Scudder says* of the song of niv-
eus : "The day song of this insect is ex- ceedingly shrill and may be represented
by the following figure [which repre-
sents a trill] though the notes vary in
rapidity.
When slowest they are about
sixteen a second.
The song is of varied
length, sometimes lasting but two or
three seconds, sometimes continuing a
minute or two uninterruptedly; it is a
nearly uniform, equally sustained trill, Rep. Geol. N. H., V. I. p. 365-366.
but the insect often commences its note
at a different pitch from the normal one as if it required a little practice to attain it. When singing the tegmina are
raised at fully a right angle to the body. The night song consists of 'thrrr' re-
peated incessantly, three parts of song- and one of rest in every three seconds." The "day song" described by Mr. Scud-
der seems to be the song of fasciatus,
while the "night song" certainly resem-
bles that of angusti$ennis more than
the song of niveus. Walker's Oecan-
thus niyrico4.s is, I think, nothing
but a long-winged fasciatus. Speci-
mens of the last-mentioned species with
wings extending beyond the elytra as
much as . I 6 of an inch are not uncom-
mon.
Finally, Zatipeds, according to Prof.