ULOPA RETICULATA. 91 



The general colour is warm greyish, with rich umber 

 or brown-sienna marks. A whitish streak passes from 

 the vertex through the thorax to the cauda. Body 

 very punctate. 



I am not sure whether the insects, which are not 

 uncommon at the roots of Erica and Calluna on the 

 heaths around Haslemere, are to be regarded as 

 Brachelytrous or Macropterous forms. Those I have 

 examined have elytra considerably longer than the 

 body, but I cannot discover in them any true wings. 

 Mr. Edwards describes the Macropterous form, " Pro- 

 notum wider and more convex behind. . . . Claval 

 suture distinct. . . . White bands obsolete." 



Fieber gives an etching of the true wing, which I 

 have copied, but his manuscript wanted the diagnosis 

 of the species. Sahlberg says, " Tegminibus postice 

 porrectis. . . . Alls explicatis," whilst for the Brachy- 

 pterous form he says " Alis nullis." I conclude, 

 therefore, that my figures relate to this last form. 



This insect is sluggish in habit, usually attaching 

 itself strongly to a furze spicule or to a rootlet of a plant, 

 and feigning death when it drops to the ground. It is 

 very tenacious of life, and will live for more than a 

 week in a pill-box without food or extra moisture. 



Size, 3-0 to 3-5 millimetres, or 0'14x0-06 inch. 



N.B. — The curious mask-like mark of the scutellum 

 before noted is very constant and persistent through 

 many genera and species of Tettigidas. It appears 

 very markedly in the Deltocephalida^ and the Typhlo- 

 cibidffi, and in many examples they represent success- 

 fully the "death's head and cross-bones " so clearly seen 

 in our great Sphinx-moth, Acherontia atvopos. 



Scott calls Ulopa obtecta {reticulata) the commonest 

 of the common amongst species ; he says that they lie 

 largely all the summer at the roots of heath, whilst in 

 winter they keep themselves together amongst the 

 decayed flowers and seed-pods. They so much resemble 

 these last objects that until the insects move they may 

 readilv be mistaken and overlooked. 



