26 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



A CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS A LIST OF 

 SCOTTISH ORTHOPTERA. 



By WILLIAM EVANS, F.R.S.E. 



THE British Orthoptera are few in number ; even in the 

 southern half of England, where they are most plentiful, there 

 are only between thirty-five and forty species that can be 

 reckoned as indigenous or thoroughly established, the few 

 others recorded being merely casual visitors and importations 

 from abroad. Northwards, the number is still less ; and here, 

 in Scotland, it is doubtful if we have more than a third of 

 the above number. There is, however, some evidence that 

 one or two species have been lost to us in the course of the 

 last century. 



The Order has been greatly neglected by Scottish 

 entomologists, in proof of which I need only point to the 

 fact that the twenty volumes of the present magazine and its 

 predecessor " The Scottish Naturalist," extending over a 

 period of thirty years, have yielded me but three records of 

 Orthoptera two relating to the German Cockroach, and one 

 to the Migratory Locust. I cannot myself claim to have 

 given much attention to the group, and the few Scottish 

 specimens I possess are merely such as have come in my way 

 when I have been collecting other insects. Few, however, 

 though they be, a list of them, and of the other records that 

 have come to my knowledge, will always be a contribution 

 to the subject, and, it is hoped, may serve the further useful 

 purpose of inducing others to record their observations also. 



The following, then, is a list of my own captures made, 

 of course, chiefly in the Edinburgh district and of such 

 other recent records as are known to me. The nomenclature 

 is that adopted by Mr. Malcolm Burr in his book on " British 

 Orthoptera" published in 1897. 



I. CURSORIA. 



Labia minor (Linn.). Comiston (2 7th September 1897, $ ), Morning- 

 side (2ist August 1898, ? ), and Craigentinny (22nd August 

 1898, $ ), all in Edinburgh district. Apparently not common 

 in Scotland : recorded from Forfarshire by G. Don in 1813. 



