METRFOPTERA KOESEL1I. 169 



tendency is, however, not uncommon amongst Locustids. 

 AVhile under observation he found, as a general rule, a 

 tendency for the green coloured parts to change to 

 yello\v or light brown. The pale margin of the lateral 

 flaps of the pronotum shared in this change, and the 

 transition from green to yellow in all cases progressed 

 from the posterior margin forwards. This observation 

 seems to reconcile the discrepancy with regard to the 

 coloration of the margin as o-iven by various authors, 



CJ? (/ 



and the colour found by Porritt to be universal in his 

 Trusthorpe specimens of 1912. One which he sent me 

 alive from that locality still has the margin of a greenish 

 tin ore although it is now nearly six years old. 



O O tl i 



DISTRIBUTION. J/. roeselii is chiefly European, its 

 distribution being somewhat similar to that of J/. 

 brachyptera : apparently, however, it is less frequent 

 in the north but extends farther south. On the 

 Continent it is not purely littoral as it appears to be 

 in England. It has been mentioned as present in 

 Sweden (r), Denmark, England, France, Belgium, 

 S. Germany, Italy, Croatia, Istria. Servia, Bosnia, 

 Herzegovina, Spain (r'), Caucasus. Perhaps it crosses 

 the Ural Mountains. 



BRITISH LOCALITIES. 



In Britain so far as at present known this species is con- 

 fined to the south-east coast of England, and till a few years 

 ago was almost lost to sight. Even now recorded localities 

 for it are extremely few. 



Stephens says: "This species appears to be very rare in 

 this country. I have hitherto seen, so far as I remember, 

 two examples only, which are in my own collection, and were 

 found in the vicinity of the Metropolis in the autumn, I believe 

 .at Hampstead."* 



In 1886 E. Saunders took one at Herne Bay in August. 



In August 1888 it was found plentifully by H. Wallis Kew 

 amongst coarse grass "along by the footpath*' on the sand- 

 hills at Trusthorpe, between Mablethorpe and Sutton-on-Sea 

 in Lincolnshire. 



* '111. Br. Ent. Mand.' vi, p. 13, 1835. 



