ORTHOPTERA IN THE CANARY ISLANDS. 93 



brown, the monotony relieved by some graceful palms, and clumps of 

 agave and cactus ; in the lower levels the deep green patches of the 

 banana plantations stand out piominently. On the higher ground 

 some scrubby trees are bent double with the force of the prevailing 

 wind from the west. The neighbourhood of Santa Brigida is too 

 cultivated to afford good collecting : the ground consists of a mass of 

 round black gravel, worn lava, out of which the vines grow in 

 profusion, divided into fields separated by hedges of cactus and agave 

 mingled with brambles, enlivened by brilliant red clumps of woody 

 geraniums. I spent many hours wandering about and turning over 

 countless stones in the hopes of coming across some of the peculiar 

 earwigs, but it was rare to find a living insect. On one hilltop, free 

 from c Itivation, I found a fair number of Caloptenns vulcanim, Kr., a 

 well-marked local representative of the Mediterranean C. italicm, with 

 a banded variety bifasciata, Kr., corresponding to the variety ynart/inellus, 

 Serv., of the Mediterranean form. It is quite a good species, and very 

 distinct. It seems to be the common grasshopper of the islands, 

 being found in numbers nearly everywhere. In addition to the 

 intensity of cultivation, collecting was rendered difficult by stormy 

 weather ; gusts of violent wind sprang up frequently and dropped 

 again with startling suddeness, and we rarely saw the sun during our 

 stay in the Grand Canary, weather which I was informed, as usual, 

 was unknown to the oldest inhabitant at this season. 



We made an excursion to the Gran Caldera, an extinct crater of 

 perfect form where it appears that the lava never actually overflowed, but 

 sank back into the crater ; it is almost perfectly circular, about a mile 

 in diameter, and nearly a thousand feet deep from rim to the base, 

 which is, of course, cultivated ; the walls are vertical, except where 

 covered by the slope of the talus ; agave, cactus, and the local 

 Kuphorbia, like fat podgy fingers, grow round the rim. 



Caloptenns vulcaniua was very abundant ; in the lower levels, 

 Flatycleis grisea, Fabr., is common ; there were a few specimens of 

 Oedipoda canariensis, Kr., a local form of the common 0. caerulescens, L., 

 differing in the narrower vertex, more rugose head and pronotum, 

 feebler band and paler colour of the wings ; it hardly deserves specific 

 rank. Looking under stones produced nothing but a nymph of 

 Luyjryllus biinaciilatus, De Geer, the common cricket of the islands ; 

 this is interesting, for it is the African representative of L. cainpestris, 

 L., which does not apparently occur in the islands. Crawling in some 

 burnt up grass, I found a buff" female of Parameles liinbata, Brulle, a 

 purely local species, which represents the various species of Amelen 

 occurring in the Iberian Peninsula. 



Below the village of Santa Brigida, a grand and deep ravine, the 

 Barranco de Tirajana, runs down to the coast ; a rivulet in the dry 

 .season, it is a good torrent in the spring, and here collecting was more 

 profitable. 



A clump of stones near a farm house produced the ubiquitous 

 Anisolabis annulipes, Luc, in numbers, and also A. maxima, Brulle. 

 This is one of the finest of the genus, well-developed specimens rival- 

 ling in size even the gigantic Australian A. colossea, Dohrn ; the specific 

 characters are well marked, but adult specimens were rare. Mantis 

 relii/iosa, L., was fairly common, and where grass was growing, 

 Kpacromia thalassina, Fabr., and E. strepens were abundant; Pachytylm 



