128 BEITISH OETHOPTERA. 



kitchen quarters, they occasion great damage among^ 

 the plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of 

 cabbages, young legumes, and flowers. When dug 

 out they seem very slow and helpless, and make no 

 use of their wings by day ; but at night they come 

 abroad, and make long excursions, as 1 have been 

 convinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, . in 

 improbable places, in fine weather, about the middle 

 of April, and just at the close of day, they begin to 

 solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note, 

 continued for a long time without interruption, and 

 not unlike the chattering of the fern-owl, or goat- 

 sucker, but more inward. . . . 



" When mole-crickets fly they move ( cursu undoso* 

 rising and falling in curves, . 



DISTRIBUTION.- -6r. gryllotalpa is found in the British 

 Isles, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, 

 Egypt, etc.- -in fact, speaking generally, its habitat is 

 Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. 



BRITISH LOCALITIES. 



In the British Isles the mole-cricket appears now to be 

 seldom noticed, though probably it is not so scarce as this 

 would seem to imply. Like its namesake with the velvet fur, 

 it is an underground animal, and may therefore very easily 

 escape notice. There seems, however, reason to suppose that 

 it is less common with us than it used to be. Although I 

 have received living examples I have never met with it 

 myself, and know personally of hut one locality where it is 

 permanently established. At a certain spot in the south of 

 the New Forest one of the keepers seems at any time to be 

 able to obtain specimens by digging for them in the clayey 

 soil. From this locality I have several examples, and from 

 the same source, I believe, came one in July 1911 which 

 measured about 50 mm. in length and 66'5 mm. in wing- 

 expanse. The following records have come under my notice : 



ENGLAND. Berks : Besselsleigh (Distant}. Cambridgeshire: 

 Ickleton, 1780 (Kirby & Spence). Cornwall : A male imago 

 taken alive on the sandhills at St. Enodoc near St. Minver, 

 December 1912 (Bracken}. Derbyshire : Although described 

 by Glover (' History of the County of Derby/ 1829) as 



