THE RICE GRASSHOPPER. 



{HieTOfjlyphiis 'banian, Fahr.) 



The Eice Grasshopper is an insect by no means new to 

 science. It was first described by Fabricius/ as long ago 

 as 1798, under the name of Gryllus Banian, with habi- 

 tat given simply as East India. The description of 

 Fabricius is incomplete and, in some respects, inaccurate, 

 so that the insect was redescribed by Serville''^ in 1839 as 

 Acridimn furcifei\ with a note that this name is pos- 

 sibly synonymous with the Gryllus Banian of Fabricius : 

 he, however, adds : " Ba description est tellement concise, 

 qu'il est difficile de prononcer, il ne parle ni des ailes ni des 

 antennes ; ne designe pas la taille et dit que les jambes 

 posterieures sont verdatres." Serville's description, based 

 upon three specimens from Bombay, is very complete and 

 leaves no doubt whatever that he was dealing with the 

 Rice Grasshopper. He gives a figure of the posterior end 

 of the male and of an anal cercus. 



The genus HieroglijpJius was established by Krauss^ 

 in 1877. Stal,^ in his " Systema Acrideodeorum," lists the 

 Rice Grasshopper as H. furcifer, Serv., and Brunner de 

 WattenwyP does the same in his " Revision du Syteme des 

 Orthopteres." Kirby*^, however, in his " Catalogue of Orthop- 

 tera," recognises the priority of the name given by Fal3- 

 ricius and lists the form as Hieroglyplius banian, Fabr. 



This, as far as I am aware, comprises the systematic 

 literature dealing with the insect, wdth the exception of a 

 paper by de Haan,^ which I have not had the opportunity of 

 consulting. 



1 Fabricius, Entoinologica Systematica, Suppl. jj. 194, 1798. 

 ■^ ServiUe, Hist. Nat. des Orthopteres, p. 677, pi. 14, fig. 12, 1839. 

 ■^ Krauss, Sitz. Akad. Wisg. Math-uat. Classe XXVI (1) p. 41, 1877. 

 ■• Stal, Systema Acrideodeorum, Bihane Svensk. Akad. Haudl. V (4) pp. 48 and 93 

 1878. 

 ■J Brunner de Wattenwyl, Eevision des Orthopteres, p. 154, 1893. 



6 Kirby, Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera, Vol. Ill, p. 396, 1910. 



7 De Haan, Temminck Verhandl. Oi-th. p. 155, n. 10, 1842. 



R. G, P 



