214 BRITISH ORTHOPTERA. 



EGGS AND EGG-LAYING.- -Information about our two 

 species is not forthcoming on this point. Hancock has 

 investigated the matter with regard to one or two 

 American species. The eggs were slightly curved in 

 their long axis, about one-third as wide as long ; they 

 terminated in a long process, so as to resemble a club 

 with a short handle ; they were pinkish-white when 

 laid, but turned to an opaque greenish-yellow-white. 

 The eggs were laid side by side in a pear-shaped mass 

 glued together, the processes being upwards. The 

 female made a shallow hole by spreading and closing 

 her ovipositor blades, and by lengthening her abdomen, 

 the hind legs being drawn up out of the w^ay. It took 

 about one hour to lay the eggs, which were not numerous 

 -about a dozen more or less. After the process was 

 finished the earth was scraped over the spot. When 

 the opportunity arises it will be interesting to see 

 whether the British species proceed in a similar way. 



VARIATION.- -Like T. subulatus, this little grasshopper 

 varies enormously in size, and still more than that 

 species in colour. The range is from practically black, 

 through dark brown, dull red, and lighter browns, to a 

 dirty white. There may be in addition various markings 

 and mottlings. A conspicuous form has a broad 

 yellowish-white mid-dorsal stripe. The two black 

 spots on the pronotum, from which the species derives 

 its scientific name, may be conspicuous, indistinct, or 

 absent. A very dark example, with pronotum exten- 

 ding a little beyond the tip of the hind femora, taken 

 by Yerbury at Nethy Bridge, looked remarkably like 

 T.fuliginosus Zett.,but was not. This should be British, 



but the moment of its discovery has not yet arrived. 



/ i/ 



3urr states that a fully-winged form has been taken in 

 France. Fieber figured and described the nymph as 

 schrankii, the distinction depending chiefly on the one- 

 lobed hind margin of the side-flaps of the pronotum ; 

 but Brunner points out that this is a characteristic of 

 all the species in the nymph-stage. Dr. Buchanan 

 White recorded scliranldi for Scotland in 1870. 



