4 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



must seek the first specialist. DonovanS it is true, gave good plates 

 of several species, but though his chatty remarks are entertaining and 

 agreeable, he is rarely quoted nowadays, for he gives no localities. 

 But one classic of the preceding century, though not a s}.-iematic 

 work, must be included in the bibliography of orthoptera. Blatta 

 orientalis, L., was to Gilbert White" "an unusual insect," and he was 

 one of the earliest, if not the first, to make this insect familiar to 

 others than housewives and kitchenmaids. His charming observa- 

 tions upon our three best known crickets are well-known to everybody. 

 This lasted until 1835, when Stephens'^ work was published. His 

 account of our orthoptera, although, of course, containing many 

 inaccuracies and mistakes, has lasted almost to the present day as a 

 basis for British students of the group. Stephens' great mistake, 

 which was a fault rather of the period than of the individual, was that 

 he failed to discriminate species, and was at sea with the intricacies of 

 the genus Stenobothnts. For example, he makes four species of 

 Forjioida aurictilaria, L. His ^' CJrj/Uidae" { — Locustodea), with the 

 exception of course of the nomenclature, is accurate, but his 

 " Lociistidae" { = Acridiodea) contain many errors. He includes no 

 less than eighteen species in Stenobuthrus, in several instances, e.ij., 

 haemorrhoidalis, Charp,, miniatus, Charp., 'montana,Q\iax^., he wrongly 

 identifies forms described by Charpentier in 1825. The colour- 

 varieties, too, of Goinjihucenis maculatns, Thunb., he raises to specific 

 rank. 



The work of Charpentier'', above referred to, is the first important 

 account of the European orthoptera, and his descriptions are excellent, 

 far in advance of their age. The only influence that this publication 

 had upon the study of British orthoptera, was, as we have seen, that 

 Stephens misunderstood it. Stephens refers also to Serville's'' Bevue 

 vietliodiqiie dcs Orthopteres, a precursor of his later and far more important 

 work*"', which appeared in 1839. In this book he monographs the 

 orthoptera of the world, as then known, and his descriptions are 

 admirable. Simultaneously there appeared Burmeister's classical 

 Handbnch'', in the second volume of which he treats the orthoptera. 

 His system is good, but his descriptions are very brief, and often 

 unrecognisable. In a later paper" he compares these two great works, 

 which had appeared within a few weeks of each other. But neither 

 Serville, nor Burmeister, nor even Fischer de Waldheim, were much 

 used on the rare occasions that entomologists in Britain turned their 

 attention to orthoptera. Fischer de Waldheim's monograph" of the 

 orthoptera of Kussia is one of the most important of the century, and 



1 Donovan, Edw., lire Natural Hiatory of British Insects, &e., vols, i-xvi., with 

 576 coloured plates, 1792-1813. 



2 Gilbert White, The Natural Ilistonj and Antiquities of Selbornc, 1788. 

 2 Stephens, llUtstrations of British Entomolo(jy, Mand., vi., 1835. 



* Charpentier, T. de., Home Entomologicae, Wratislaviae, 1825. 



•■' Serville, " Eevue methodique des Orthopteres" (Ann. de sci. natur. zool., 

 xxii., 1831). 



'' Serville, Histoire Naturelle des Insectes : Orthopteres, Paris, 1839. 



■^ Burmeister, Handhuch der Entomologie, ii., Beiiin, 1839. 



** Burmeister, Audinct-Serville's Histoire naturelle des Orthopteres, verglichen 

 viit Burvieistefs Handb. der Entom., &c. {Gerinar's Zeitschr., 1840, T. ii., p. lat.). 



'■> Fischer de Waldheim, Entomograjjhie de la Bussie, i-iv. (vol. iv., " Les 

 Orthopteres de la Eussie," with 37 plates, 1843). 



