LOCUSTODEA. 147 



11. PSEUDOPHYLLIDJ]. W.B. 14. 



12. PROCHILID.E. W.B. 15. PHANEROPTERID^E. 



13. MECOPODJD.E. 



While eight of these families are represented in 

 Western Europe, but five extend so far as the British 

 Isles- -Decticidse, Loeustidae, Conocephalidae, Meco- 

 nemidae, and Phaneropteridse. Xine species only are 

 known with certainty to be natives of Britain, thousrh 



i/ O 



Phaneroptera falcatd Scop, may quite likely turn out 

 to be so. One British species, Phasgonura viridissima 

 Linn., finds a place in the typical family. Our nine 

 representatives compare very unfavourably in number 

 with those found in Western Europe, which sum up 

 to over one hundred and sixty. There is apparently 

 only a sino-le reliable record of a locustid from 



/ o 



Scotland. 



At present I have not met with the eggs of all 

 of our species, but in several cases they may be 

 described as rather long curved cylinders with rounded 

 extremities; those of _/>/>/ny;/////-x punctatissima Bosc 

 are, however, of quite a different shape. \Vith her 

 formidable scythe-shaped ovipositor the female places 

 the eggs singly, below the surface of the ground in the 

 case of some species, within the twigs or stems of 

 plants in that of others. They are' laid in the autumn 

 and apparently hatch in the spring. After some half- 

 a-dozen ecdyses the adult state is reached in the 

 summer often quite late, and seldom before the latter 

 part of July. There is little post-embryonic develop- 

 ment and a pupa-stage is absent, the insects being 

 nymphs from the time of leaving the e^g- till thev 



tJ O e/ 



become imagines. The wings become more pronounced 

 at each ecdysis after their first appearance ; many 

 species, however, remain wingless, or nearly so> 

 throughout their life. As a rule Locustids are sedentary 

 and nocturnal in their habits, as compared with the 

 following group, the Acridians. 



While, too, the latter are herbivorous insects, the 

 former are not entirely so, and specimens kept in 



