ORTHOPTERA 49I 



To account for the presence of the last two species presents 

 the greatest difficulty of all. Nothing is known, I believe of 

 the habits of Closteridce. Only one species of the TriixalmcB^ 

 Ch/oealiis conspersa Harr., so far as I know, has been observed 

 to lay its eggs in wood, and it is possible that either Closteridea 

 has, or its ancestors had, the same habit. All the Xifhidia^ I 

 believe, live on the ground and never on trees, so that its occur- 

 rence here is altogether unlikely and I can form no plausible 

 theory of the manner of its introduction. The problem is not 

 simplified by the fact that it is found on two islands, James and 

 Indefatigable. 



Albemarle is represented by the greatest number of species 

 (twelve), and this is quite to be expected, since it is the largest 

 of the islands and its greatest length lies across the path of the 

 currents and trade winds. It is on the leeward side of the 

 group. Indefatigable is next in size and, with Chatham, it has 

 the next largest number (seven) of native species. Chatham is 

 fourth or fifth in size and is, I believe, the only one of the 

 islands now inhabited. It is the easternmost of the group. 

 Charles and James have each six representative species. 

 James is probably fourth in size and has no more than its pro- 

 portionate number of species. Charles is smaller and its rela- 

 tively larger number of species is probably due to the fact that 

 it has been inhabited and presumably more frequently visited 

 than most of the others. It is difficult to understand why Hood, 

 which is rather smaller than Charles, and has been much less 

 frequently visited, should have the same number of species. 

 The remaining islands, with one exception, are small and three 

 of them — Abingdon, Bindloe and Tower — lie far from the 

 others, so that the small number of species credited to each is 

 natural. The exception referred to is, however, curious. 



Narboro ranks second or third in size. It has but three 

 species credited to it and all these are found on Albemarle. This 

 condition of things may be partly explained by the fact that the 

 island is completely cut off from the prevailing currents by 

 Albemarle, so that it is apparently impossible that drift wood 

 should ever reach it from the main land. 



All the specimens of orthoptera collected by Mr. Snodgrass 



