Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

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Article beginning on page 366.
Psyche 8:366-370, 1897.

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PSYCHE.
[June 1899.
ARKANSAS MELANOPLI. - 111.
BY JEROME MCNEILL, FAYETTEVILLE, ARK.
Melamphis impiger Scudd. - This is
a not uncommon species among vegeta-
tion in the sandy bottoms and along the
banks of streams.
I have captured full
grown specimens as early as the seven-
teenth of July and as late as the twenty- sixth of October. These specimens
seem to be quite typical.
Sixteen males,
twenty females from Washington, Craw-
ford, Sebastian, and Marion counties.
ilIe/anDp/us keeleri Scudd. - A variable species occurs commonly in Arkansas
and farther north which after much
hesitation I have decided to consider
Mel, keekri. I have specimens from
Washington, Crawford, Sebastian, Madi-
son, Newton and Marion counties and
from the Indian Territory and while
they vary little in size and color there is such great difference in proportion
and shape of parts that following
Scudder's key individuals fall in either of three closely related species, Mel.
keeleri, Meter and lwiiius. To illus-
trate the amount and character of this
variation, I have five males from Fay-
etteville, one has the median carina
of the pronotum percurrent on the pro-
zone and distinct, a second has it
percurrent but indistinct, a third has it entirely obsolete between the transverse sulci, the last two have no trace of it on the prozone. All of these specimens
have the space between the mesosternal
lobes three times as long as wide ; but
four males from Cane Hill in the western part of Washington County have the
space between the mesosternal lobes four times as long as wide, and in the median carina they are quite constant, there
being but a faint indication of it before the first sulcus. Three other males
from Fort Smith, Gaither, Newtop
County, Ark., and Mackey, I. T. have
the median carina percurrent and dis-
tinct on the prozone but the second and
third have the space between the
mesosternal lobes two and one half times as long as wide while the first has this space little if any longer than broad.
The cerci are very like those of Mel.
luridus as figured by Scudder but they
differ much in color and appearance
from typical specimens from Nebraska.
The furcula is very small, in one case
apparently obsolete, and very divergent. My specimens are indistinguishable in
size and color from Illinois specimens
which Scudder considers Met. collititts. On the whole it seems to me to be
highly probable that the four species
named above are merely varieties of one
widespread species and accordingly I
give the Arkansas specimens the oldest
name.
Melanoplus atlams Riley. - This wide-
ly distributed species is rather more
common than Mel. femur ruhr~tm,




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June 1899.1 PSYCHE. 367
Specimens with red hind tibiae are
about as common as those with green
legs. My collection contains thirty-nine of the former and forty-two of the latter. Difficulty is frequently experienced in
distinguishing red leg females from
those of Mil. femur rubrum. The
weakness of the median carina on the
prozone, the length of the tegmina and
their more distinct maculation are all
useful characters, but I have found the
sharpness of the prosternal spine a good guide when other distinctions failed.
MdanopZus fanur-ruhrum De Geer.-
This species is abundant in meadows
and pastures. Short winged females
are somewhat difficult to distinguish
from Mel. impudicits but the last mcn-
tioned species may be known by the
fact that the second sulcus of the pro-
zone is twice as distant from the third
as from the first. A single specimen,
female, from Fayetteville captured Oc-
tober fifth has green hind tibiae.
Melanoplus packardii Scudd. - I have
collected this very variable species
at three points in the State. It was
found to be common on the shores of
the Arkansas River opposite Pine Bluff
on September first. I found it again
amongst the rank vegetation about the
mouth of the Big Buffalo in Marion
County July twentieth. Specimens from
these two localities differed striking-ly in size and color and to a slight extent in structure. The former were smaller,
paler, less distinctly marked and had
green instead of purplish red hind tibiae. Still other specimens were captured
near Diamond Cave in Newton county
July twenty-seventh which had either
red or green hind tibiae and in other
respects were intermediate between the
first two series.
Melanoplus impzdzcus Scudd. - This
species hitherto known only by three
specimens from Georgia and Missis-
-
sippi is represented by a considerable
number of specimcns in my collection.
These seem to agree well with the
published description and figure, except- ing only that the tegmina never exceed
the femora in the females and in the
males there is no distinct post-apical
tubercle on the subgenital segment and
the apical half of the cerci is less than one half the width of the base. It is
confined so far as I have observed to
the open borders of woods on high land.
From Madison, Boone, Carroll, Newton,
Marion, and Washington counties.
Melanoplus gradis Bruner, -This
appears to be an uncommon species,
though it is apt to be rather abundant
where it occurs at all. I have met
with it but twice ; once near Yellville, Marion county where it was common
on very dry rocky ledges amongst very
sparse vegetation in company with
Hadrotettix and Trimerotropis ; again
on the bank of White River a mile
below Buffalo City, Marion county.
Here it was quite common on the very
rank vegetation which flourished in a
soil which was occasionally enriched by
the overflow of the river. Specimens
from both localities agree well with
specimens from Illinois and Indiana.




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368 PSYCfiE. [June 1899.
Melanoplus sylvaticus n. sp. - Medium
size, brownish fuscous above, yellowish
below; head testaceous, or brown much in- fuscated above and with a broad post-ocular stripe; occiput moderately tumid, slightly elevated above the pronoturn ; inlerspace between the eyes a little n~u~ower (J'), or half as broad again ( $), cis the first antenna1 joint ; fastiguni rather steeply rielivent, deeply, (8) or distinclly, ($), snlcate; frontal costa slightly narrowed above, other- wise equal in width and nearly pel-current, distinctly silicate (8) at and below the ocel- Ins, or slightly sulcn-te for a very short dis- tance below the ocelkis (2) punctate
throughout and abont as broad as the inter- ocular space; eyes rather large, somewhat prominent, a little longer than the infra- ocular portion of the genae; antennae dark brown somewhat (J), or scarcely, ($),
longer than the head and pronoturn. Prono- turn faintly ($), or decidedly, ($)expanding posteriorly; above infnscated (f^} or some- times, (?) ferrnginous; on the sides flavous or flavo-testaceous below, with the upper por- tion occupied by a broad shining piceous stripe broadening slightly on the inetazone; disk convex, passing by a slightly angnlate hodder into the anteriorly somewhat
tumid lateral lobes; median canna distinct on the metazone, variable and more or less indistinct on the prozone but least apparent between the second and third sulci; front margin slightly convex or a little emarginate, hind margin very obtusely annulate; prozone decidedly ({} or faintly ($), longitudinal and about half as long again as the densely punctate metazone; prosternal spine conical, bluu.tly pointed ; space between the meso- sternal lobes as long as (J'), or not so long as ( ? 1 broad. Tegmina slightly shorter than the pronotuin, scarcely twice as long as broad elliptical, overlapping a very little, fuscous or brownish fuscous. Fore and middle
femora slightly tumid in the male, green or flavons; hind femora rather slender but
thick, flavous with the outer and inner faces dark green or ferrnginous, never in the least fasciale outwardly, sometimes with very
faint infiiscations on the upper surface and with a more or less deeply infuscated geni- cular spot; hind tibiae green with the
extreme base more or less infuscated bnt without a pale ring basally; spines blaclr, ten or eleven in the outer series. Extremity of abdomen in the male clavate scarcely at all recurved ; the supra-anal plate triangular with the sides gently convex, the median sulc~is very broad and deep, eqnal and
terminated about the middle by a short
transverse ridge; furcnla very small, distant triangular denticulations; cerci shorter than the supra-anal plate, straight, rapidly tapering from the base to the middle, beyond q
slightly tapering suhstyUform and bluntly pointed, the width at the middle being less than a third the width of the base ; subgenital plate somewhat longer then broad, scarcely elevated ypically and ending in a small
tubercle.
Length of 'bod';, male, 17 rnm. female, 25 mm.
Length of tegmina male, 4 mm. female 54
mm.
Length of hind femora, male, 11 mm.
female, 14 mm.
Seven males, three females, along
wooded clifts in Carroll, Boone, and
Newton counties.
This seems to be an uncommon
species though probably widely scat-
tered. It is very closely related to Mel- anophs viridipcs Scitdd., though it does not (all in the same part of Scudder's
key owing to the differently shaped
cerci. It is readily distinguished from
that species by the straight, tapering,
comparatively short cerci, the little
recurved extremity of the male abdo-
men, the absence of post-femoral bands




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June 1899.1
so conspicuous in the allied species, the shorter tegmina and antennae and pro-
portionally longer hind femora.
MeZanoplus obova-tipemis Blafchley. -
A rather uncommon species. I have
but eight specimens, four males and
four females, found in Washington
and Sebastian counties in September
and October. Compared with Indiana
specimens, the tegmina are mure elon-
gate, and the cerci shorter. This
species is much mole closely related to
Met. jfracilis Bruner than would be incli- cated by their position in Scudder's key. This is the species I formerly mistook
for Mil. mancus Smith which was erro-
neously reported by me to be found in
Indiana.
Melanoplus baconi, n. sp. -Medium size,
fcrrugineo-fnscous frequently suffused with vinous red. Head moderately (8) or not
( 9) prominent; in front on the genae ;is well as on the lower part of the liileral lobes of the pronutum olivaceous flavous, more (?), or less (8) completely suffused with vinous red; vertex gently tumid and dis- Linctly elevated above the pronotum; space between the eyes a little more than once (a) or nearly twice (2) as broad :is the first iinlennal joint ; fastigi~un considerably (8) or slightly ($), snlcate; frontal costa almost cqual throughout, not quite reaching the clypeus, sulcate for a short ( $ ) or consider- able ($) distance below the ocellus, punc- tate; eyes only slightly longer than hroad ; antennae rufo-testaceow (8) or red ($)
infmcated apically, a little (8) or decidedly (? ) shorter than the hind femora. Pronotum feebly enlarging posteriorly in the female though the sides of the disk are parallel behind the first sulcus or even distinctly converging on the metazone, hardly expand- ing in the male even below; the sides
with a broad distinct piceous postocnlar stripe strictlylimited to the prozone and generally contrasting strongly with the color below, about as distinct in the female as in the male; disk gently rounded passing into the lateral lobes by a very rounded shoulder ($ ) o distinctly angnlate (8) ; median carina distinct and sharp, though slight, on the metazone; on the prozone slight and
frequently wanting between the sulci,
especially in the male ; hind margin strongly but obtusely and roundly angnlate; prozone scarcely longitudinal even in the male but little longer than the densely but shallowly punctate metazoiie; prosternal spine long, cylindrical, blunt, retrorsc; space between the n~esosternal lobes variable, one and a half times as long as hroad (8) or one and a half to twice as hroad as long ($).
Tegmina abbreviate more than half the
length of the abdomen, five sixths (female) the length of the posterior femora, costal and anal margins evenly and gently arcuate, apex blunt, the dorsal and lateral fields angularly separated, the former plain gener- ally infuscated, the latter frequently with a median row of smaller spots. Fore and
middle femora quite tumid in the males;
hind fcn~ora testaceous, with the disk of the exterior face irregularly infuscated, rarely bifasciate with fuscous, the upper and inner faces plainly bifasciate, inferior face flavous, more or less suffused with red. The geniculation black or brown, hind
tibiae red without black at the base and without sub-basal pallid annulus, spines black. Extremity of male abdomen moder-
ately clavate considerably recurvcd; the supra-anal plate triangular, longer than "broad with a very acute anyulate apex and with gradually :md considerably elevated sides and a broad median snlcus which is percurrent though nai-ro-wi~ig apically and interrupted near the middle of the plate by a sharp and high transverse plication ; furcula consisting of a pair of small widely separated diverging denticulations about as long as



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370 PSYCHE. [June 1899.
the last dorsal segment, separated by a third of the width of the supra-anal plate and entirely outside of the sub-median ridges i cerci moderately broad and very heavy, their thickness equalling the middle width, gently tapering at the base, the apical two-thirds about equal and two-thirds the width of the base bent a little downward and acmcely
perceptibly inward, the outer face snlcate apically, the extremity rounded above and angulate below, exceeding the supra-anal plfite and falling short of the apex of the abdomen by a little more than their basal width, the length being 1111-ce and a half times their width at the base. Subgenital plate about as long as broad, with the lateral margins sinuate and the apex much elevated. Length of body, male, 23 mm.; female, 25 mm.
Length of tegrniria, male, 10 mm. ; female, I1 mm.
Length of posteriorfemora, male, 11 mm. ; female, 12; mm.
Three males, sixtccn females all taken
with the exception of a single female
near the War Eagle ford between
Spring Valley and Clifty in Carroll
county, June twenty-sixth. The female
referred'to was taken a few clays later
near the same locality. All were
captured in woods. This species falls
in the Tcxana group of the genus near
those species of the group that have the tegmina attingent and the subgenital
plate of the male elevated apically but
without a tubercle. It is readily sepa-
rated from Me!, Zepidus Swiiii. by the red hind tibiae, the much longer overlapping tepina, the larger size, lighter color,
absence of fascia on the disk of the
hind femora, and the longer and dif-
ferently shaped cerci. It is readily
separated from Mel. texanns S d . by
the unequal median carina of the
pronoturn, the nearly quadrate piozone
of the male, the much longer tegmina
and shorter hind femora, the widely
separated and differently shaped furcula and the longer straighter and differently shaped cerci. Finally it is quite dis-
tinct from Mel. blalchZey2 Scudil. in its shorter antennae and hind femora, in
the quadrate prozone, the much longer
tegmina, the absence of fascia on the
disk of the hind femora, the absence
of the fuscous base and pallid annulus of the hind tibiae, the much more distant
furcula, the longer, heavier, straighter and diffcicntly shaped cerci, the longei supra-anal plate with its percurrent
median sulcus. It is most nearly
related in the structure of the prono-
turn, the furcula and the cerci to Md.
Zepidus Scz~dd. from which il may not
be distinct, but the obvious differences of tegmina and hind tibiae in addition
to other points indicated in the descrip- tion and the widely different habitat
compel me to consider it specifically
distinct. Named in honor of Mr.
William Bacon to whose zeal as a col-
lector I owe many of the Arkansas
specimens in my collection.
Mdanoplus scudde~z' Thos. -This is
a common wood species in Arkansas in
the extreme northwestern part of the
State and in the east-central part. It
does not occur in collections made in
Boone, Carroll, Marion, Newton and
Madison counties. The earliest date
for its capture is September first and




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June i8oq.l PSYCHE. 371
the latest October twenty-eight. I
think it survives the winter in the adult State as I feel confident I have seen on warm days in the middle of winter.
Scudder's observations concerning the
rounded tcgmina of specimens from
Texas applies equally well to the
Arkansas form. There is also a
marked variation in the length of the
tegmina which are decidedly shorter or
somewhat longer than the pronotum.
Nine males, twenty-two females.
fhoefaltotes fiebrasi'ensh Briiner. -
Tills species has not actually been
captured within the borders of the State but I have two males and one female
which were taken a few miles within
the Indian Territory and as the species
occurs in Kansas and Texas and- as far
East as Indiana and Illinois, I have
no hesitation in including it. The
specimens referred to are much larger
than those fioin Cordova, Illinois, and
West Point, Nebraska, in my collection.
The female measures 31 mm. the males
22 mm. and they are proportionately
robust.
(End:)
CRYPTORHYNCHUS LAPATHI (L.) IN MASSACHUSETTS. BY A. H. KIRKLAND, MALDEW, MASS.
A striking example of serious insect
damage resulting from favorable local
conditions is found in the occurrence of C'ry//o?'h~~nchus lapathi (L.) in certain parts of Eastern Massachusetts. In
Europe this beetle has gained much
notoriety as a borer in alders and wil-
lows, but in Massachusetts its attach is largely directed against the balm of
Gilead poplar. This leads us to a men-
tion of a very interesting -from an
entomological standpoint - state of
affairs now existing in Winthrop, Revere and some other shore towns. The land
being somewhat marshy and the balm of
Gilead the indigenous tree that thrives
best there, the streets and yards in the past have been largely planted with


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