ORTHOPTERA. IN 1904. 267 



same strenuous entomologist added Oxfordshire to the list of 

 counties in which Forficula lesnei was known to occur, by taking 

 it at Beckley on September 10th. 



Twice during August the locality near Christchurch was 

 visited for the shore earwig, Labidura riparia, and specimens 

 were found without much difficulty. Often their presence might 

 be guessed by small holes in the sand leading under the stones 

 beneath which they pass the day. When two are found together 

 in one lair, they seem to be male and female. On being exposed 

 to the li^ht the hind part of the abdomen, with the forceps, is 

 often thrown back, giving the insect a very strange appearance — 

 this being, no doubt, a " terrifying attitude." Several immature 

 examples were found, one being very tiny. One such, obtained 

 on August 12th, was very white, the point of the face and the 

 tips of the forceps, however, being slightly darker, and the eyes 

 quite dark. Some kept in captivity ate meat, rice-pudding, and 

 banana, but would not touch grass. On one occasion, after 

 fasting for twenty-four hours, a female seized a cinnabar moth 

 (Euchelia jacobcecs) larva of fair size and commenced eating it at 

 the head. It held the caterpillar with the forceps, and seemed 

 to be purposely stretching it. Sometimes it appeared to experi- 

 ence a difficulty in getting its forceps free. Another female came 

 up, when a fight with the forceps commenced between them. 

 They went more or less backwards to the attack, the head, how- 

 ever, being turned a little on one side, so that they might see 

 what they were doing. After a time two females and an immature 

 specimen were eating at the same larva, but not then holding it 

 with their forceps. Notwithstanding the fact that it was a 

 cinnabar larva — orange and black — they ate of it greedily ; but 

 another cinnabar larva put in with a male and a female was not 

 touched, though left with them all night. 



As regards the cockroaches, little was noted. An immature 

 Ectobia panzeri, which seems to be essentially a coast species, 

 was taken in the south of the New Forest on August 26th. On 

 September 8th Mr. H. Main gave me a prettily marked but 

 wingless and apparently immature cockroach, which arrived in 

 a sugar vessel from Java. It died without maturing on January 

 5th, 1905. Mr. E. J. B. Sopp received from Liverpool Docks on 

 December 30th five Blatta americana (including one large nymph 

 and one female with ootheca protruding) and one Leucophaa 

 sarinamensis. Apparently they were introduced amongst grain 

 from San Francisco. No doubt numbers of Orthoptera are 

 introduced in this way every year. It is always interesting to 

 note them, but they are seldom likely to affect our fauna. 

 Occasionally, of course, one may come to stay, as did Blatta 

 orientalis, B. americana, B. australasice, and Phyllodromia ger- 

 vianica, and as possibly L. sarinamensis may succeed in doing ; 

 but climatic conditions are usually quite unsuitable. 



z 2 



