15 1 IMUTISH ORTHOPTEKA. 



another's chirpings, so the experiment would have 

 been an interesting one, had it been possible. 



DATE. - -It seems clear that the eggs are laid in the 

 autumn, and hatch the following spring. Indeed on 

 one occasion in October H. Gruermonprez found a 

 female laying her eggs in an elm tree at night, with 

 the ovipositor firmly fixed in the trunk. This occurred 

 at Aldwich in Sussex. Nymphs are recorded as having 

 been met with in May, from which time they continue 

 through June and July, and even later. Bracken 

 " swept newly hatched nymphs from nettles near 

 Plymouth on 10 June 1916. Imagines seem to appear 

 as early as July ; they are at their best in August and 

 September, but may continue well into October. Burr 

 speaks of their still chirping near Dover on 21 October 

 1907. 



HABITS, ETC.- -Nettle-beds, coarse herbage, brambles, 

 low bushes- -such are the places which these grass- 

 hoppers are credited with frequenting. In the New 

 Forest, where I have had many opportunities of 

 observing them, they appear to have a partiality for 

 coarse herbage, especially in grassy rides in the woods. 

 Spots that are somewhat moist seem to be quite as 

 much to their liking as drier places. They are con- 

 spicuous insects, with a bulky appearance, and, though 

 wingless, are quite active. When one tries to catch 

 them they hop briskly away, or drop into the herbage 

 out of sight. They are best- caught by hand : grassy 

 herbage retards the net, while brambles hold it. 



Burr describes the chirp of the male as a short 

 tss tss, and says that it is most frequently to be heard 

 after dark- -of ten as late as between 10 and 12 o'clock 

 -on warm August and September evenings, especially 

 before rain. Some naturalists consider the males to 

 be less commonly seen than the females ; but, by any- 

 one who is able to stalk them by their chirp, the males 

 may perhaps be more easily caught. They sometimes 

 come to the lepidopterist's " sugar. ' : This habit has 

 been noticed at Torquay (Porritt and Hamm) ; in 



