THE TETTIGID^ OF NORTH AMERICA. 231 



aberrations were found. Another common species seems to be Tettix 

 triawiularu, Scudder, which differs but slightly from the preceding 

 species, with which, according to Hancock, it interbreeds ; the 

 distribution of the two forms is the same, but, in certain localities in 

 Illinois and Wisconsin, T. trianijidari^i is commoner; and " the numeri- 

 cal relation between the two forms reaches about fifteen to one." 



Paratettix, Bolivar, which is represented in Europe by the single 

 species P. weridinnalix, has no less than fifteen in North America. 

 According to Hancock they are " unusually aquatic, the expanded 

 tibias acting in a measure as paddles for swimming." Of the 

 Batrachidinae, there are four genera, of which Paxilla, Bob, 

 Plectronotus, Morse, and Scaria, Bob, have only a single species each, 

 but Tettii/idae, Scudd., has twenty-two. 



A noteworthy part of this book consists of the various notes on the 

 habits and manner of life of the Tcttii/idac. They are remarkable for their 

 variability, and are well known to have habits very different from those 

 of other Orthoptera ; many are known to have aquatic or semi-aquatic 

 habits, and our common English species differ from our other grass- 

 hoppers in hibernating, so that adult forms can be found in the spring 

 before other grasshoppers are out of the egg. Their protective colouring 

 is remarkable and is well illustrated by a photograph of nine specimens 

 mounted upon a single card, all of which were taken at the same time 

 and on the same spot by the author. One of the most interesting 

 points in connection with their habits is their food. Dr. Hancock 

 tells us that they feed upon the vegetable mould or decomposing soil, 

 sometimes mixed with algve, or on the lichens, mosses, tender sprouting 

 grasses, sedges, germinating seeds of plants and d/'bris found in such 

 situations. " Particularly sought after are morsels of the various 

 coloured surface clays and black muck consisting of rich vegetable 

 mould " ; a microscopic examination of the contents of their stomach 

 showed numbers of mould spores and algi'e mixed with particles of 

 quartz sand. (See a note by the same author in this magazine, vol. 

 X., pp. 6-7, 1898, " The Food Habits of the Tettigida?.") ' This is an 

 unusual dietary for Orthoptera, which are generally purely vegetable 

 feeders, though a considerable number are carnivorous, but it is much 

 doubtful if any other forms are so omnivorous as the TettUiidae, so as 

 to actually eat mud and mould. A figure in the text shows that the 

 female Tctti.r lays her eggs in much the same way as other Acridian 

 Orthoptera as described by Riley. It appears that they migrate in 

 the autumn, and local flights of considerable extent have been 

 recorded ; " in north-eastern Illinois, during sudden storms, multitudes 

 are blown into Lake Michigan," from which they usually escape owing 

 to their semi-aquatic habits ; in the Ann'riran Xatiiridist, 1894, p. 488, 

 the same author gives a short account of an unusual flight of Tcttii/idae 

 lati'irdis, Say. Another point in which the " grouse locusts," as they are 

 often called in North America, are peculiar, is that instead of copulating 

 in the late summer, as do most Orthoptera, at least in England, so leav- 

 ing the ova in the ground through winter, the Tetthiidac copulate in the 

 spring, and the young larvse are hatched out in the summer, becoming 

 adult in the late summer or autumn ; Dr. Hancock describes their 

 copulatoi'y habits, which, at least in Tettvjidac, resemble those of a 

 frog ; the male rides about on the female's back, unless dislodged by a 

 vigorous jump, and the two sexes often stay together for some days 



