The South Australian Naturalist. 



"LONG-HORNED TREE LOCUSTS." 



By E. M. Brenn (Barrier Field Naturalists' Club). 



I 



These insects are nocturnal, and in this respect differ from 

 their relatives, the sunshine-loving locusts and grasshoppers. 

 When I first decided to watch their habits I thought it was 

 going to be quite a simple affair ; I felt sure that they would be 

 easily fed on green leaves of some kind, but I was soon un- 

 deceived. I got some of the black species and put them in a 

 cage arranged for their convenience, and stocked it with 

 cabbage leaf, lettuce leaf, and grass, arranged in water in a 

 shallow tin, buried to the rim in sand. I had no doubts what- 

 ever about the food, and I expected them to feed and grow fat, 

 but I was doomed to disappointment. They absolutely refused 

 to touch the food I had provided for them. I next tried leaves 

 of different bushes. It was all of no avail; they insisted on 

 fasting. Before a week had passed their heads and hopping 

 legs appeared abnormally large, and their flanks came distress- 

 ingly close together. I failed to discover their food, and thus 

 my first attempt ended in failure. 



Later I got some of the black species, and also some of a 

 brown species, which is not so large as the former. As the 

 others had refused everything in the green-leaf line, I gave 

 them potatoes — potatoes sliced, potatoes whole, potatoes almost 

 buried in the sand under their hiding bark — and also peelings. 

 One lean creature, as he wandered forth in search of food in 

 the evening, nibbled a bit of the peelings, but without relish. I 

 tried various things which I thought might suit them, but all in 

 vain : each day the}^ grew more gaunt, and I began to realise 

 that catering for long-horned tree locusts wasn't as simple as it 

 seemed. I felt deeply disappointed over my second failure ; it 

 seemed hopeless to keep them in captivity. 



Note. — The name * * long-horned tree locusts, ' ' as used by Mrs. Brenn, 

 has been retained, but Mr. A. M. Lea has pointed out that these insects 

 (Gryllacrids) are not locusts, but carnivorous crickets. Failure to recog- 

 nize their carnivorous habits led to the difficulties experienced by Mrs. 

 Brenn in discovering suitable food for those in captivity. Their cannibal 

 instincts also explain the various references in this paper to their attacks 

 on one another; Mr. Lea states that females will eat other females, and 

 males, but that males do not eat the females of their own species. The 

 species referred to are: Brown species (Grvllaeris atrogeniculata, 

 Tepper) ; black species (Grvllaeris magnifica, Brunner) ; pink species, not 

 determined. 



