37 



FURTHEK NOTES ON METRIOPTERA ROESELII 



[ORTHOPTERA] . 



By Hekbert Campion. 



British records oi Metrioptera rocselii, Hagenb., are miiltiply- 

 iug rapidly. Since the publication of my remarks in the last 

 volume of this magazine (p. 117), the species has been made 

 known from the North Essex coast {I. c. p. 207) and from near 

 Gravesend (p. 224). In addition to these and the other known 

 localities, there are two new ones on the south coast of Essex, 

 where the insect was met with during 1912 by my friend Mr. A. 

 Luvoni, of Westcliff. At one of the new localities it was first 

 noticed on July 21st, when it occurred in some numbers in a 

 place covered with rank vegetation. The captures made on that 

 occasion, which I have seen, included imagines of both sexes, 

 although most of the females were still nymphs. Thereafter, 

 specimens continued to be taken, at intervals, until September 

 22nd, when the last were obtained. July 21st is the earliest and 

 September 22nd is the latest of the exactly dated records for 

 imagines with which I am acquainted. Two males procured on 

 the last-named date survived in captivity until September 28th 

 and October 12th respectively, ki the second of the new Essex 

 habitats, which is well removed from the first, two females were 

 taken on July 24th. Notwithstanding the fact that imagines 

 were met with some time before the end of July, a female nymph 

 was taken at Heme Bay so late in the summer as August 28tb. 



It will be observed that the new localities which have been 

 discovered recently are all of them situated, like those previously 

 known with certainty, either at the mouth of the Thames or on 

 the East Coast south of the Humber. On the Continent of 

 Europe, however, the species is not a littoral one, and its 

 distribution is very general. Dr. Malcolm Burr is kind enough 

 to write {in litt.) : — " It usually occurs in grassy meadows. I 

 have taken it in Bosnia, in the mountains of Hercegovina, in the 

 Park of Fontainebleand, and at Tiibingen in Wiirttemberg, and 

 I have specimens from 6000 ft. in the Caucasus, from the Vosges, 

 and the Carpathians. It occurs practically throughout France, 

 and perhaps crosses the frontier into the Spanish Pyrenees. It 

 occurs as far north as Sweden, and at least as far east as the 

 Urals." 



Early in September last Mr. George T. Porritt visited Mr. 

 Wallis Kew's old locality on the Lincolnshire coast, and found 

 the species plentiful there. I learn, through Mr. Porritt's 

 courtesy, that he did not observe a single specimen, of either 

 sex, having the colour of the prothoracic border otherwise than 

 bright grass green. 



At the end of August I was fortunately able to renew my own 



