AMERICAN DECTICID/E. 



159 



to find the Ononis to which we knew it was attached. A few plants 

 were found in the river-bed almost opposite the " baths," and here a 

 few of the moths were found ; but, well up the little gorge, where the 

 stream spreads out about half-way to its source, a large quantity of the 

 foodplant was found, with an abundance of the species, and eggs 

 obtained in due course. The habits of the imagines are exactly similar 

 to those of M. lunaedactyla, and they were easily disturbed in the early 

 afternoon. About 2 p.m. a haze again came over the hills, the sun 

 was largely overpowered, insects ceased to fly at all freely, and I 

 returned laden with spoils to the city. 



On my return in the afternoon 1 was much perturbed. I had 

 noticed in the early morning that my setting-boards, some in one of 

 the drawers of a large chest, others standing on the mantelpiece, 

 had here and there a tiny black ant on them — not enough, however, 

 for serious wrong — but when I returned home I found, not only the 

 boards, but my setting-case, overrun with thousands of the destructive 

 creatures. Many of my best specimens were irretrievably ruined, and 

 three or four hours' heart-breaking work did not suffice to clear them 

 off; nor was I quite free for three or four days after I left Digne. I 

 had intended only staying one day for a rest, and stayed a second (and 

 third) because of my meeting Mr. Sheldon, but the last two days were 

 made a "holy terror" by the depredations of the ants. I would 

 suggest to future visitors to the Hotel Boyer-Mistre to avoid the back 

 rooms of the left-hand side of the upper floor as they would the 

 plague if they want to save their specimens. A serious matter to 

 entomologists are the ants of the Hotel Boyer-Mistre, and affording 

 but little compensation for the extra comfort that this particular 

 hostelry offers. 



The next morning Mr. Sheldon was better, and so I accompanied 

 him over the same ground. Nothing more was added to the bag, but 

 the abundance of Erebia neoridas and Hipparchia arethusa was pheno- 

 menal. It was no uncommon thing to have half-a-dozen of the latter 

 resting on one at the same time, and on one occasion no fewer than 

 twelve or fourteen were resting on Mr. Sheldon as he stood in the 

 shade, near the source of the stream. On the way back (as well as on 

 our outward journey) we saw several fine large females of Mantis 

 religiosa, under the jutting rocks- that stand up from the roadway, 

 between the " baths" and the city, no doubt they had crawled there 

 to lay their eggs, as some that I brought home, for school purposes, 

 from the same place a fornight later, laid their egg-masses shortly 

 after my return. One specimen that I captured was of a brilliant 

 orange colour, ab. aurantia, a striking contrast to the normal bright 

 green form. 



On Tuesday, August 7th, I commenced another step towards the 

 Alpes-Mari times. 



American Decticidae.* 



By MALCOLM BUlUt, B.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.E.S. 

 Tbis very interesting family has a wide distribution, a few genera 

 occurring in South Africa and even in Australia, but it attains its 



* "The Decticinae (A Group of Orthoptera) of North America," by Andrew 

 Nelson Caudell (Proc. U.S. Nut. Mu*., vol. xxxii., pp. 285-410, May 23rd, 1907). 



