Researches on North American Acridiidae Volume 18 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: sylvestris, whose congener celatus of the Virginia mountains bears an even closer resemblance to their northern relative, M. islandicus. On the borders of the clearings and balds and in the more open forests a rank growth of " ol' rich weed" (Eupatorium) is frequently found, sometimes covering wide areas. Here Melanoplus amplectens (=blatchkyi) is a characteristic species, and at the head of Roan Valley has extended its habitat into the higher grassy clearings, thriving in myriads among the timothy and velvet-grass (Phleum and Holcus). (See PI. 7, Figs, i, 2) Many other thicket- dwelling species were secured at various elevations. A COMPARISON OF CAMPESTRAL AND SYLVAN LOCUSTS. Campestrian Species.?This group as a whole includes locusts of the open country, be it wet or dry, marsh or mountain, strand or crag. Here belong our commonest and best-known locusts or "grasshoppers," of which typical examples are Melanoplus femur- rubrum and Dissosteira carolina. Considered carefully, we find that all of the Oedipodinae of the Eastern States fall into this group; of the Tryxalinae the following genera: Mermiria, Tryxalis, Syrbula, Orphulella, Eriteltix, Stenobothrus, and Mecostethus; of the Acridiinae Leptysma, Arnilia, Schistocerca, Paroxya, and about fifteen species of Melanoplus (notably angustipennis, atlanis, bivittatus, differentialis, extremus, femoratus, minor, propinquus, symmetricus); and a number of the Tettiginae. Sylvan Species.?To this group belong primarily those species which inhabit woodlands and thickets or their borders, such as Chloealtis conspersa, Podisma glacialis variegata, Melanoplus amplectens, baconi, fasciatus, huroni, islandicus, luridus, morsei, obovatipennis, scudderi, sylvaticus, iiiridipes, and many of the new species secured during my trip?celat...