ORTHOPTERA IN CAPTIVITY. 249 



Five other species were secured by Dr. Willey, and the 

 identifications adopted for them are those with which Dr. Ris 

 was good enough to furnish me. 



Agrionid;E. — Argiolestes aurantiacus, Eis, 2 S • 

 LiBELLULiD.E. — Nesoxeiiici mysis dahli, Ris, 1 cJ . Agrionoptera 

 insignis shnilis, Selys, 1 (^ . Orthetrum villosovittatum hismarcld- 

 anum, Ris, 2 cJ , 2 ? . Neurotlionis stigmatizans hramina, Guer., 



Our knowledge of the Odonate — fauna of New Britain and the 

 archipelago to which it belongs is contained in two papers by 

 Dr. Ris, namely, "Neue Libellen vom Bismarck- Archipel" (' Ent. 

 Nachr.,' xxiv, i)p. 321-327, 1898), and "Libellen vom Bismarck- 

 Archipel " ('Archiv Naturgesch.,' Ixvi (i), pp. 175-204, pi. is, x, 

 1900). 



ORTHOPTERA IN CAPTIVITY. 

 By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. 



He who undertook to rear even our own small company of 

 Orthoptera would usually have a difficult task before him. The 

 earwigs, however, would probably give him somewhat less trouble 

 than the rest. One favourite hibernaculum and nursery of the 

 common earwig is a decaying, but fairly dry, branch of a tree 

 lying on the ground. Batches of its eggs may generally be found 

 in the spring without much difficulty by breaking up these fallen 

 branches. The eggs, when found, should be taken, with the 

 mother and some of the soft touchwood, and placed on a layer 

 of shghtly damp earth or sand in a sufficiently large, ventilated 

 glass-topped box, or in a small fish -globe, whose orifice, has been 

 covered with muslin. The eggs will soon hatch, and if the mother 

 and young are fed on small insects or other animal food, with 

 fragments of grass or sweet fruit as a variant, in a few months 

 the nymphs will reach maturity, unless lack of food should 

 induce cannibalistic tendencies in them or their mother. To 

 get the adults to pair and lay eggs in captivity would probably 

 be not so easy a matter. 



Fish-globes topped with muslin are suggested as convenient 

 vivaria for the rest of our Orthoptera, if it is desired to keep 

 them alive in captivity for purposes of observation, and this can 

 be done without any difficulty. To rear them through all stages 

 would be a very different thing, though there may be naturalists 

 with sufficient leisure and enthusiasm to attempt it. With 

 breeding-houses of sufficient size, in which the environment is 

 such as is customary with the species concerned, no doubt this 

 might be done ; but as the cages increased in effectiveness in this 

 respect there would be a corresponding decrease in their value 

 for the purpose of observing the habits of their occupants. The 

 insect-house at the Zoological Society's Gardens in Regent's 



