2 THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



" has been occasionally seen in great numbers in the New 

 Forest," while Dallas puts it pretty clearly in his 'Elements' 

 at p. 408. He says : " We have only a single British represen- 

 tative ; this is Cicada hcematodes, an insect of great rarity in 

 Britain, being only found in the New Forest, and even there it 

 seems to be of very uncommon occurrence." 



According to a local guide-book, a nymph was bought from a 

 collector in the forest by Mr. A. Piffard, of Hemel Hempstead, 

 in 1881. 



A specimen was exhibited at a meeting of the South London 

 Entomological Society, on August 13th, 1896, said to have been 

 one of three taken by Mr. Heasler, in Surrey, he having been 

 attracted to it by its song ; and the late Mr. C. G. Barrett records 

 it from the same county (E. M. M. vol. i. 1864-1865) ; these, so 

 far as I know, are the only records of captures outside the New 

 Forest. 



My first introduction to the Cicada occurred on June 26th, 

 1901, when I netted a specimen on the wing near Lady Cross, 

 Brockenhurst, and for some years I saw nothing more of it ; but 

 in 1907 Mr. C. W. Colthrup informed me that on June 11th, 

 1901, he took a female apparently just emerged, and sitting on 

 its pupa-case, chirping merrily, at about 11.30 a.m. He sug- 

 gested that we should pay a visit to the locality, with a view to 

 obtaining other specimens. This we did on June 12th, 1907, 

 the day being wet and windy. Although no imagines were forth- 

 coming, we soon found three of the empty nymph-cases lying 

 loose but undamaged on the grass, showing that the insects had 

 but recently emerged. 



A dry sunny bank, with a south-westerly aspect and light soil, 

 covered with rabbit-cropped grass, dwarf bracken, and stunted 

 heather, and overhung by pine-trees, appears to be the metro- 

 polis of the Cicada. This spot has clearly been occupied by it 

 for many years, Dr. D. Sharp having informed me that he took 

 it there in the seventies. Eeferring to this locality, Mr. Claude 

 Morley says {in litt., August 20th, 1909) : '* On June 16th, 1907, 

 I took a pair in cop. on bracken-stem : this pair I was able to 

 trace by their song. They were sitting in cop. on the stem of a 

 bracken, close to the ground. It would almost appear as though 

 this copulation had taken place immediately upon emergence 

 from the nymph, though, if such be the usual course, of what use 

 is the song ? " He also mentions that in 1907 he heard the 

 species " singing," or, rather, " whistling," in several different 

 parts of the forest, and that all the others appeared, without 

 exception, to be in trees. 



In 1908 I searched the spot thoroughly on June 7th, in 

 company Mr. W. J. Lucas, but neither of us could meet with 

 any trace of the Cicada. During the past summer, however, 

 the Fates have been more propitious, for on June 11th four 



