Article beginning on page 465.
Psyche 6:465, 1891.

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PSYCHE.
AN UNUSUAL APPEARANCE OF SCHISTOCERCA AMERICANA. BY W. S. BLATCHLEY, TERRE HAUTE, IND.
About three o'clock in the morning
of April I ~th, 1893, the city of Terre
Haute, Indiana, was visited with a
severe storm of rain and wind from the
southwest.
A number of buildings were unroofed
and many shade and forest trees twisted
and broken off.
While on my way to the High
School building several persons in-
formed me that they had that morning
seen specimens of "gigantic grass-
hoppers" on the streets but were unable
to capture them. About ten o'clock
one of my former pupils brought me
two living, mature specimens of that
large and handsome locust, Schisto-
cerca americma Drury, which she had
picked up from the sidewalk near her
home. I was much surprised to see
them as the earliest date at which I
had before noted the species in this
vicinity was June 27, 1891, when I
found them common and freshly
moulted in a small prairie east of Terre Haute. I have never seen the young or
images in winter but have taken the
latter in numbers as late as November
zznd.
On looking up all references as to
their time of appearance in other locali- ties I find nothing definite as to whether the species hibernates as imago or
young and but little about its appear-
ance in spring. Dr. Riley gives June
14th as the date of its appearance at St. Louis,* and states! that the average
period between hatching and maturity
is 70 days. He also states: that "Cer-
tain large locusts, belonging to the
genera Acridium and Oedipoda, hiber-
nate in the full grown, winged state . . . and that two species which are
most often found with the young (of
Melanoplus spretus Uhler) are the
American Acridim, (Acridium
ame~icammz Drury) and the Coral-
winged Locust ( Oedipoda $hoenico$-
tera Germ) ." He does not say in so
many words that umericana hiber-
nates in the mature state, though from
the context one would infer that he so.
meant. In this locality the Coral-
winged Locust, now known as Hippis-
First Report U. S. entomological commission, 221 - t LOC. tit. 237.
Loc. cit. 336.




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[June 1893.
cus tuberculatus Beauv., hibernates as
a larva and reaches maturity about May
1st.
Dr. Cyrus H. Thomas in 1871 de-
scribed* a form of S. americana under
the name of Acridium ut~zbiguum and
stated that in southern Illinois it always appears in small numbers in April or
May while americana never appears
earlier than the middle of July. In
another placef he says of ambiguum :
"It is this variety which appears occa-
sionally to pass the winter in the perfect state." The specimens in my possession
may be his var. ambiguum but as far
as I can see they do not differ either in structure or color from specimens of
the typical americana taken in this
vicinity in October.
McNeill says of S. americana, that
its earliest recorded appearance at Rock Island, Illinois, is Sept. 20th ; while
Scudder records its capture at Fort
Reed and Jacksonville,Florida, on April
loth.å This comprises all the infor-
mation at hand as to dates of appear-
ance at other places.
That the species is, to a certain ex-
tent, migratory is well known, numer-
ous instances of this habit having been
recorded by Riley,* Thomas, and other
writers ; but these migrations all oc-
curred in late summer or in autumn.
Its unexpected appearance here so
early in the season gives rise in my
mind to the following questions : Where, if at any place, in the United States does it hibernate as imago? Is it double or
treble brooded in such a locality? At
what point southwest of Terre Haute,
Indiana, does it occur mature as early as April I 2th in sufficient abundance that it could be blown in numbers and scat-
tered over the streets of this city? In
this locality it is evidently double
brooded, the first brood maturing in
June or July from eggs hatched in
spring, the other maturing in Septem-
ber or October.
HOSTS OF NORTH AMERICAN TACHINIDAE, ETC., I. The following twenty-seven species
of tachinids, sarcophagids, etc., were
all bred by Prof. S. A. Forbes, in Illi- nois. They were included in a large
collection of Muscidae sent to me for
determination from the Illinois State
* U. S. geol. surv. of Montana, 1871,447. f Psyche, VI, 73.
+ Ninth Rep. st. ent Ill., 1880, 133.
5 Proc. Bost. soc. nat. hist., XIX, 86.
Laboratory of Natural History at
Champaign.
I. Cisfogaster immaculata Mcq.-
One bred from Leucania uni@uncta.
2. Ocyptera e2tchenor Wlk. - One
bred from LLAcrididae." Also one
(smaller specimen) from Leucania
uni'uncta.
* First Rep. U. S. ent. comm., 449.




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