﻿BRITISH OCCURRENCES OF METRIOPTERA ROESELII. 117 



Evans, on May 27th, while Colonel Yerbury sent me a specimen 

 with broad yellowish stripe along the middle of the prouotum, 

 taken at Lochinver on June 20th ; and one very dark example 

 with pronotum extending a little beyond the hind knees, taken 

 at Nethy Bridge on August 9th. This latter looked as if it might 

 be T.faliginosm, but the announcement of this insect as British 

 is not yet to be. 



In the hot sunshine of July 11th, on the downs near Clandon 

 (Surrey), and again in the New Forest, when the sun on August 

 7th was very bright and very hot, especially in sheltered places, 

 I particularly noticed that grasshoppers were chirping merrily; 

 yet Tennyson writes : — 



" For now the noonday quiet holds the hill 

 The grasshopper is silent in the grass " ; 



while another author, speaking of " autumn calm," says : — 

 " Scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard 

 Thro' the dumb mead." 



On the other hand, Keats writes : — 



" When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, 

 And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 

 From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead 

 It is the grasshopper's ..." 



Can these three statements be reconciled ? 



Description of Plate IV. 



Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, with wings spread. 

 ,, ,, with wings closed. 



Meconema thalassiniim ovipositing. 



Kingston-on-Thames : February, 1912. 



NOTES ON BEITISH OCCURRENCES OF METRIOPTERA 

 [PLATYCLEIS) ROESELII, Hagenb. (Orthoptera). 



By Herbert Campion. 



On August 1st, 1911, Mr. R. South was fortunate enough to 

 take a fine male of this scarce British Locustid near Leigh, 

 Essex. It was found amongst long dry grass at the foot of one 

 of the ramparts which serve as sea-walls on that part of the 

 coast. A few days later — August 10th — he revisited the locality, 

 and spent a considerable time in searching for further speci- 

 mens, but without success. Mr, South very generously gave 

 me his single example, which I received alive. I fed it upon 

 fresh grass, and it was still quite active when I killed and set 

 it on August 21st. 



As this species is so little known to British entomologists as 

 a living insect, and in view also of the fugitive character of its 



