sometimes either one or the other is omitted. A very pretty species of the genus is the handsome meadow grasshopper, Orcl, eHml«m latical«d« (or p?dchellum) shown m Figure 30.. When at test, both males and females usually sit close to a stem or leaf with the middle of the body ?n contact with the support and the long hind legs stretched out behind. Davis savs the song of this species is a zip, zip, zip, ?, ?, .., quite di?tinguishable flore that of O. çwlgare. Still smaller meadow grassh?ppers belong to the genus Co?zoc@hah, s, more commonly called .Viphidil«m. One of the most abundant species, the slender mead?w grass- hopper, C../asciatus, is sh?wn in Figure 3 ?- It is less than an inch in length, the body green, the back of the thorax dark brown, the wings red?lish-brown, and the back of the abdomen marked with a broad bmwn stripe. Allard says the song of this little meadow grassh?pper may be ex- pressed as tip, tip, tip, tseeeeeeeeeeeeee, but that the entire song is so faint as almost to escape the hearing. Piers describes it as ple-e-e-e-e-e, tz#, tzit, tzit, tzit. l.ike the song of Orchelimz«m ?,u/gare it apparently may either begin or end with staccato notes.
THE SHIELD BEARERS Another large group of the katvdid family is the sub- family Decticinae, mostly cricketl'ike insects that lire on the ground, but which have wings so short (Fig. 3"-) that they are poor musicians. They are called "shield bearers" because the large back plate of the first body segment is more or less prolonged like a shield over the back. Most of the species live in the western parts of the United States, where the individuals sometimes become so abtmdant as to form large and very destructive bands. One such species is the Mormon cricket, .tnabrus simplex, and an- other is the Coulee cricket, Pera?mbrus sca?ricollis (Fig. 32), o(the dry central region of the State of Washington. The females of these species are commonly wingless, but the [54]
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