244 IIK1TJSH OUTHOPT.EKA. 



lines sometimes present. Hii/1r<i (PI. XX, fig. 7), 

 longer than the abdomen ; costa arched near the base ; 

 some shade of brown ; usually spotted. Wings hyaline, 

 but sometimes smoky just at the tip. Leys of various 

 tints, usually variegated, sometimes ringed. Apex of 

 abdomen sometimes red. 



FEMALE IMAGO (PL XXV, fig. 1). Colour and length 

 of the antenna much as in the male. Size much larger ; 

 length some 22 mm. Elytra reaching beyond the apex 

 of the abdomen ; sometimes a pale streak between 

 the subcostals. Ovipositor short, valves rather blunt, 

 without an external tooth. 



VARIATION.- -Extremely variable in colour scarcely 

 two being exactly alike. The general colouring may 

 be green, red, purplish-yellow, grey, brown, almost 

 black, and sometimes variegated. Whenever the 

 surroundings are sufficiently definite, the colour assi- 

 milates, sometimes most accurately, with them. Porritt 

 records an interesting case of this kind. " St. Anne's- 

 on-Sea is a modern seaside resort built upon the sand- 

 hills of the Lancashire coast. On the outskirts of the 

 town there are often small sandy spaces left between 

 the houses, and in some of these ashes and other 

 rubbish from the houses have been thrown, the con- 

 sequence being that the sand has become of dirtier and 

 darker appearance. In such situations 8. bicolor still 

 flourishes, but there is a very perceptible difference in 

 the colour of the specimens as compared with the 

 ordinary forms, the tendency to become darker being 

 so marked that some of them are already absolutely 

 black. On the open sandhills the colours of the species, 

 though variable as usual, are quite normal." Hamm 

 noticed that a common grasshopper (probably S. bicolor) 

 was red on the Red Sandstone in Devon. Owing to 

 this great tendency to variation a number of names 

 have been given to the various forms, and three are to 

 some extent in use : 



(1) mollis Charp.--the green form. 



(2) pnrpurascens Fieb.--the reddish-purple form. 



