1720 INJURIOUS INSECTS AND OTHER LOWER ANIMALS. - GENERALITIES 



1242 - Diestrammena marmoraia {Tachycines asynamorus), a,n Orthop- 



teran from German Greenhouses. — Ebner, k., in Centraibiatt fur Bakteriohgie^ 



Parasitcnkunde und Infcrtionskrankheitcn, Vol. 45, No. 18-25, PP- 587-594. Jena,, 

 Jiuie 19, 1916. 



For several 3'ears a strange Orthopteran has occurred in greenhouses 

 in Germany, which is known either as Diestrammena marmoraia de Haan 

 or as D. unicolor Brunner. In 1913 Boi.dvrev established the fact that 

 Diestrammena from Central Germany is identical with Tachycines asyna- 

 morus Adel. which is found in greenhouses in Petrograd. The writer has 

 obtained several specimens from a greenhouse in Vienna which were iden- 

 tified as T. asynamorus. It is not known to what country' this insect is 

 indigenous, but most probabl^^ it was imported into Europe from America. 



It was recorded for the first time in 1891 by Krejci at Prague, and it 

 has been known in hothouses in Hamburg since 1892. Later it has appeared 

 in Saxony and in Thuringia, and notably in Kiel, Lubeck, Waudsbek, 

 Mtinster, Berlin, Breslau, Frankfort o. M., Leipzig, Dresden, etc. It has 

 also been found at Brussels (Adelung), Lille (1913), Paris (Chopard, 1913), 

 in England (Kew Gardens, St. Leonard's and Ipswich, 1910-1913) and 

 in Denmark (Frederiksberg). In almost all these places it has been de- 

 scribed under the name of Diestrammena, but undoubtedly it is identical 

 with Tachycines. In Austria it has only been reported from Prague and 

 Vienna. 



The insect onh' comes out at night when it is verj^ active, being able 

 to jump to a height of 19 ^/g inches. During the da}' it hides itself in pots 

 or in cracks in the walls of the greenhouse. While the larvae are moult- 

 ing they hang freely in the air suspended by the posterior end of the body. 



When the insects are captured a brown liquid is excreted from the 

 mouth. In summer they often leave the greenhouse during the night but 

 never for long. The same thing has been observed in Troslophiliis (an 

 insect which lives in dark places) and the writer concludes that the two 

 insects belong to the same group. But as Tachycines only inhabits green- 

 houses and never cellars, Chopard considers that a uniform temperature 

 and a high degree of moisture are more essential than darkness. 



Reproduction goes on all the j^ear round, but more especially in the 

 spring. According to Boldyrev and Gerhardt copulation takes place 

 at night. The female lays i to 50 eggs a night and altogether several 

 hundreds are laid. The eggs are oblong and about 2 mm. long by i mm. 

 wide. The behaviour of the young larvae is exactly like that of the adult 

 insects. 



The food principally consists of animal matter, but according to 

 Ludwig and Ebner it is probable that vegetable material also can be 

 utilised. 



The writer believes that this insect does more harm than is generally 

 supposed, but unfortunately no satisfactory methods of dealing with it 

 are known. Great cleanliness in the greenhouses is recommended and 

 also fumigation with sulphur vapours and with carbon bisulphide. 



Several investigators recommend spraying the plants with Schwein- 



