296 THE entomologist's record, 



however, we are slowly adding to our stock of knowledge and 

 of recorded facts, and I have ventured on these speculations more 

 perhaps as indicating what may be the lines of future research into 

 the distribution of our British coleoptera, than as propounding a 

 theory which adequately explains it. 



(DRTHOPTERA. 



Saga natoli^, Serv., at Constantinople. — While riding on the 

 moors near the Forest of Belgrade, about six or seven miles west of 

 Therapia, on August 25th, I was lucky enough to catch sight of a 

 green Sa;ia crawling on the grass. It was too large to put into any 

 box I had with me, and I had to bring it home alive in my handker- 

 chief. It turned out to be a Saga natoliae, Serv., ? , a typical Balkan 

 form. Brunner has taken it at Castellastua, in Dalmatia, but I failed 

 to find it there last year, and he records it also from Brussa and Smyrna, 

 in Asia Minor. They are powerful carnivorous insects, capable of giving 

 a good bite, which may even draw blood from the hard skin of the hand ; 

 they sit waiting on the top of weeds and clumps of herbage which 

 stand higher than the surrounding grass, from which they can see and 

 pounce upon their prey, which seem to be smaller insects of any sort. 

 The females are far commoner than the males, and, in fact, the male of 

 S. serrata, Fabr., is almost unknown, w^hereas the female is far from 

 rare ; it appears that they breed by parthenogenesis. My specimen, 

 when opened, was found to contain several eggs ready for oviposition, 

 and four or five half developed. — M. Burr, F.Z.S., Dormans Park. 

 September 10th, 1901. 



^ A R I A T I N . 



Variation of Zonosoma pendularia. — The most frequent form of 

 Z. pendularia obtained here is dark slaty-blue with a broad, bright red 

 band, the edges running into the blue and being very ill-defined. The 

 ordinary type form is rare. I think this is a very distinct case of 

 protective coloration. On the ordinary white-barked birch the type 

 form is hardly visible, but very few of the birches here are white-barked, 

 only a few of the larger ones being so as a rule ; the bark is usually 

 dark brown, mottled with a little white, and coloured also by lichens ; 

 on these stems the typical form is most conspicuous, and can be seen 

 many yards away, whereas the dark form is almost invisible and is 

 most easily overlooked ; very occasionally it sits on oak-trees in which 

 the dark form has the same advantage of being inconspicuous, whilst 

 the type is just the reverse. — F. C. Woodforde, F.E.S., Market 

 Drayton. June 11 th, 1901. [The banded form appears to be a quite 

 distinct and unnamed aberration. There is a var. (et. ab.) grueolata, 

 Stand., " Iris," x., p. 23, diagnosed in Staudinger's Cat., 3rd ed., as : 

 " Al. dense griseo-inspersis, minus signatis." One specimen, which 

 I saw from Mr. Woodforde's locality, might well belong here. The 

 extreme form with the bright red band is, however, very striking and 

 unusual. — Ed.] 



Seasonal dimorphism in Cilix glaucata. — Whilst examining my cap- 

 tures of the current year I was struck by the decided difierence between 

 the 1st and 2nd broods of Cilix (jlaucata, the latter being so much paler. 



