A third species, also of a green color, with still narrower wing-covers, which are of almost equal width from one end to the other, but are rounded at the tips, and are shorter than the wings, has the head, thorax, musical organs, and breast, like those of the preceding species, but the piercer is much shorter, and very much more crooked, being bent vertically upwards from near its base. The male has a long tapering projection from the under-side of the extremity of the body, curved upwards like the piercer of the female. This grasshopper belongs to the genus Phaneroptera, so named, probably, because the wings are visible beyond the tips of the wing-covers; and, as it does not appear to have been described before, I propose to call it angustifolia,* the narrow-leaved. It measures from the forehead to the end of the abdomen about three quarters of an inch, and to the tips of the wings from an inch and a half to an inch and three quarters. Its habits appear to be the same as those of the oblongifolia. It comes to maturity sometime in the latter part of August or the beginning of September.

From the middle till the end of summer, the grass in our meadows and moist fields is filled with myriads of little grasshoppers, of different ages, and of a light green color, with a brown stripe on the top of the head, extending to the tip of the little smooth and blunt projection between the antennæ, and a broader brown stripe bounded on each side by deeper brown on the top of the thorax. The antennæ, knees, and shanks are green, faintly tinted with brown, and the feet are dusky. When come to maturity, they measure three quarters of an inch or more, from the forehead to the end of the body, or one inch to the ends of the wing-covers. The latter are abruptly narrowed in the middle, and taper thence to the tip, which, however, is rounded and extends as far back as the wings. The color of the wing-covers is green, but they are faintly tinged with brown on the overlapping portion, and have the delicacy and semitransparency of the skin of an onion. The shrilling organs in the

I formerly mistook this insect for the Locusta curvicauda of De Geer, which is found in the Middle and Southern States, but not in Massachusetts, is a larger species, with wing-covers broadest in the middle, and different organs in the male, and belongs to the genus Phylloptera.

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males consist of a transparent glassy spot, bounded and traversed by strong veins, in the middle of the overlapping portion of each wing-cover, which part is proportionally much larger and longer than in the other grasshoppers; but the transparent spot is rather smaller on the left than on the right wing-cover. The male is furthermore distinguished by having two small black spots or short dashes, one behind the other, on each wing-cover, on the outside of the transparent spot. The wings are green on their front margins, transparent, and reflecting a faint pink color behind. The piercer of the female is cimeter-shaped, being curved, and pointed at the end, and is about three tenths of an inch long. The hindmost thighs, in both sexes, are smooth and not spinous beneath; there are two little spines in the middle of the breast; and the antennæ are very long and slender, and extend, when turned back, considerably beyond the end of the hind-legs. ing the evening, and even at other times in shady places, the males make a sharp clicking noise, somewhat like that produced by snapping the point of a pen against the thumb-nail, but much louder. This kind of grasshopper very much resembles the Locusta agilis of De Geer, which is found in Pennsylvania and the Southern States, but does not inhabit Massachusetts, and is distinguished from our species by having the wings nearly one tenth of an inch longer than the wing-covers, the antennæ excessively long (two inches or more), and the piercer not quite so much curved as in our species, besides other differences which it is unnecessary to record here. As our species does not appear to have been named, or described by any previous writer, I propose to call it Orchelimum vulgare, the common meadow-grasshopper, the generical name signifying literally, I dance in the meadow.

With this species another one is also found, bearing a considerable resemblance to it in color and form, but measuring only four or five tenths of an inch from the head to the end of the body, or from seven to eight tenths to the tips of the wings, which are a little longer than the wing-covers. The latter are narrow and taper to the end, which is rounded, but the overlapping portion is not so large as in the common species, and the male has not the two black spots on each wing-cover. The upper part of the abdomen is brown, with the edges of the segments greenish yellow,

and the piercer, which is nearly three tenths of an inch long, is brown and nearly straight. This little insect comes very near to Locusta fasciata of De Geer, who, however, makes no mention of the broad brown stripe on the head and thorax. I therefore presume that our species is not the same, and propose to call it Orchelimum gracile, the slender meadow-grasshopper. M. Serville, by whom this genus was instituted, has described three species, two of which are stated to be North American, and the remaining one is probably also from this country; but his descriptions do not answer for either of our species. Both of these kinds of meadow-grasshoppers are eaten greedily by fowls of all kinds.

One more grasshopper remains to be described. It is distinguished from all the preceding species by having the head conical, and extending to a blunt point between the eyes. It belongs to the genus Conocephalus, a word expressive of the conical form of the head, and, in my Catalogue of the Insects of Massachusetts, bears the specific name of ensiger, the sword-bearer, from the long, straight, sword-shaped piercer of the female. It measures an inch or more from the point of the head to the end of the body, and from one inch and three quarters to two inches, to the end of the wing-covers. It is pale green, with the head whitish, or only faintly tinted with green, and the legs and abdomen are pale brownish green. A little tooth projects downwards from the under side of the conical part of the head, which extends between the antennæ, and immediately before this little tooth is a black line bent backwards on each side like the letter U. The hindmost thighs have five or six exceedingly minute spines on the inner ridge of the under-side. The shrilling organ of the male, on the left wing-cover, is green and opake, but that on the right has a space in the middle that is transparent like glass. The piercer of the female is above an inch long, very slightly bent near the body, and perfectly straight from thence to the tip, which ends in a point. The color of this grasshopper is very apt to change, after death, to a dirty brown. It comes very near to the dissimilis described by M. Serville, but appears to be a different species.*

* In the collection belonging to the Boston Society of Natural History, there is

3. LOCUSTS. (Locustada.)

The various insects included under the name of locusts nearly all agree in having their wing-covers rather long and narrow, and placed obliquely along the sides of the body, meeting, and even overlapping for a short distance, at their upper edges, which together form a ridge on the back like a sloping roof. Their antennæ are much shorter than those of most grasshoppers, and do not taper towards the end, but are nearly of equal thickness at both extremities. Their feet have really only three joints; but as the under-side of the first joint is marked by one or two cross lines, the feet, when seen only from below, seem to be four or five jointed. The females have not a long projecting piercer like the crickets and grasshoppers, but the extremity of their body is provided with four short, wedge-like pieces, placed in pairs above and below, and opening and shutting opposite to each other, thus forming an instrument like a pair of nippers, only with four short blades instead of two. When one of these insects is about to lay her eggs, she drives these little wedges into the earth; these, being then opened and withdrawn, enlarge the orifice; upon which the insect inserts them again, and drives them down deeper than before, and repeats the operation above described until she has formed a perforation large and deep enough to admit nearly the whole of her abdomen. The males, though capable of pro

an insect which I suppose to be the Conocephalus dissimilis of Serville. It was taken in North Carolina by Professor Hentz. The conical projection of the head is shorter and more obtuse than in the ensiger, the sides of the thorax are brownish, the hindmost thighs have a double row of black dots on the under-side, and the spines on this part are more numerous and rather larger. Professor Hentz has sent to me from Alabama another species distinct from both of these, about the same in length, but considerably broader. The conical part of the head between the eyes is broader, flattened above, and, as well as the thorax, rough like shagreen. There is a projecting tubercle beneath, but the curved black line is wanting, and the tip of the cone has a minute point abruptly bent downwards, and forming a hook. The sides of the thorax are bent down suddenly so as to make an angular ridge on each side of the middle. The wing-covers are dotted with black around their edges, and have also an irregular row of larger and more distinct spots along the middle. The hindmost thighs have a double row of strong spines beneath, and the piercer is straight and only about six tenths of an inch long. This insect may be called Conocephalus uncinatus, from the hook on the tip of the head.

ducing sounds, have not the cymbals and tabors of the crickets and grasshoppers; their instruments may rather be likened to violins, their hind-legs being the bows, and the projecting veins of their wing-covers the strings. But besides these, they have on each side of the body, in the first segment of the abdomen, just above and a little behind the thighs, a deep cavity closed by a thin piece of skin stretched tightly across it. These probably act in some measure to increase the reverberation of the sound, like the cavity of a violin. When a locust begins to play, he bends the shank of one hind-leg beneath the thigh, where it is lodged in a furrow designed to receive it, and then draws the leg briskly up and down several times against the projecting lateral edge and veins of the wing-cover. He does not play both fiddles together, but alternately, for a little time, first upon one, and then on the other, standing meanwhile upon the four anterior legs and the hind-leg which is not otherwise employed. It is stated that, in Spain, people of fashion keep these insects, which they call grillo, in cages, for the sake of their music. Locusts leap much better than grasshoppers, for the thighs of their hind legs, though shorter, are much thicker, and consequently more muscular within. The back part of the shanks of these legs, from a little below the knee to the end, is armed with strong sharp spines, arranged in two rows. These may serve as means of defence, but the lower ones also help to fix the legs firmly against the ground when the insect is going to leap. The power of flight in locusts is, in general, much greater than that of grasshoppers; for the wing-covers, being narrow, do not, like the much wider ones of grasshoppers, so much impede their passage through the air; while their wings, which are ample, except in a few species, and when expanded together form half of a circle, have very strong joints, and are moved by very powerful muscles within the chest. From the shoulders of the wings several stout ribs or veins pass towards the hinder margin, spreading apart, when the wings are opened, like the sticks of a fan, and are connected and strengthened by little crossing veins, which form a kind of net-work. The same structure exists in the wings of grasshoppers, but in them the longitudinal ribs are not so strong, and the network is much more delicate. Hence the flight of grasshoppers is short and un