6 TfiE JEiJtOMOLOGIST*S RECORb. 



Herbert Goss have retired from the position of Secretaries to the Ent. 

 Soc. of London, after many years of able and onerous service. Mr. 

 Verrall's annual dinner brought together a large concourse of our 

 most eminent entomologists, and this, as well as the gathering at Mr. 

 Adkin's, proved abundantly that entomological studies promoted, 

 rather than checked, a love of social intercourse. The presence of 

 Lord Walsingham at the conversazione, held by the City of London 

 Society at the London Listitution, wss an act of courtesy and kind- 

 ness, keenly appreciated by the members. The thanks of all ento- 

 mologists, too, are due to Dr. Standfuss and Mr. Merrifield, to the 

 former for sending, and to the latter for obtaining the loan of, the 

 valuable aberrations and hybrids, which were the result of several 

 years' experimental work in rearing lepidoptera at different tempera- 

 tures, and in crossing allied species with each other and with their 

 most permanent varieties, and which, after being exhibited at the 

 conversazione of the Royal Society, were on view for a time at the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington. 



Space forbids the extension of this brief summary beyond its pre- 

 sent limits. I will only, in conclusion, reiterate the wish that 1898 

 may prove, in every way, a more successful year, entomologically, than 

 its predecessor. 



The food habits of the Tettigidae. 



liy Dr. -JOSEPH L. HANCOCK. 



The deficiency of published knowledge relative to the food habits of 

 Tettigians is justification for the appearance of this brief contribution. 

 Many of the North American species eat the decomposing mud 

 immediately bordering streams, which, under the mid-day sunnner 

 sun, generally teems with low vegetable life. Alga3 form a large 

 part of the residuum left by the receding water, while lichens 

 find a favoured foothold. On these substances, mixed with clay, 

 Tettigians feed freely. They digest it with rapidity, deriving nourish- 

 ment therefrom, and excrete the same in little oval masses, v/hich are 

 expelled with considerable force. This mud-eating propensity, which 

 is most eagerly enjoyed by Paratcttiv, is in keeping with the slight 

 development of the salivary gland, which, in this genus, is in the 

 simplest form. The peculiar selection of this diet, to the exclusion of 

 higher forms of vegetation, shows somewhat of a departure from the 

 recognised food habits of other Acriiliiiiac. Some species that live 

 away from the water (not being sub-aquatic), in open woods, on light 

 sandy soil, feed both on the superficial deposit of vegetable mould, and 

 the lichens growing on it. Certain forms of Tctti.r and Numotettix 

 are fond of Cladunia. One, out of many experiments which were 

 tried with members of this group, will prove instructive in this con- 

 nection. In the early part of August, 1897, nine living specimens 

 gathered from the edge of the Des Plaines river at Riverside, 111.; in- 

 cluding representatives of Paratcttiv and Tetti.r, were put in a glass 

 jar. At the bottom had been provided, first a layer of sand, then 

 black earth, and on the surface a piece of lichen-covered soil, trans- 

 planted for their food. On freeing them from a tin box, in which I 

 carried them from the river, it was an interesting sight to see them 

 feast. They walked from the barren earth to the miniature pasture in 



