The Sauih A u sir alia n Kaiuralisi. 21 



about the cage in a most uneasy and discontented manner, as 

 if trying to escape the large females leaping at them as they 

 passed closely by. Only two of the females died a natural death. 

 I put a blue-AA'inged locust into the cage, and that was killed 

 and eaten. I had a large spotted ground locust (Stropis macu- 

 losa) : it was two inches long and very broad. It was brought 

 at night, and I was unable to attend to the spreading, so I put 

 it in with the tree locusts until morning. I thought they would 

 not attempt to molest such a big creature. In the morning, 

 when I came to get my spotted locust, there was only part of 

 its corpse left ; the brain and most of the abdomen of the strong 

 creature had been eaten. 



The brown species are not quite so large ; they are a nice 

 shiny brown. The top of the head between the eyes is black, 

 and a thick black mark continues from there to the end of the 

 thorax. The lower part of the face is pinkish, the black on 

 hopping legs extending from knees to several m.m. each side 

 of it; the other legs are also partly black. The wings are 

 much smaller than in the black species ; they are a pale smoky 

 colour, lightly lined with yellowish brown. The cross lines are 

 so fine, especially in the hind wing, that they are hardly notice- 

 able. The egg-laying is done at night. As the black female 

 moves over the sand she brings her long slender ovipostor for- 

 ward until it points straight to the ground ; she gently presses, 

 and gradually the long blade disappears. If it comes against a 

 small pebble the gritting can be heard as she works to one side 

 of it. When the ovipositor is buried up to the base the laying 

 begins. The eggs are a pale yellow, about 4 m.m. in length, 

 rounded at the ends, and about 1 m.m. across. The outer 

 covering is smooth and horny. Wlien she has deposited enough 

 eggs the abdomen (which during the laying is curved forward, 

 almost like a bee about to sting) is caused to tremble violently 

 as the long ovipositor is slowly withdrawn from the sand. This 

 is probably done to shake the loose sand into the hole to fill it 

 up, for as soon as the ovipositor has been removed from the 

 sand she walks away without even a glance at the place, and 

 quietly settles down to thoroughly clean and dust her egg- 

 placer. The placer looks quite solid and compact, but is really 

 composed of two pieces, which fit so closely together that it is 

 hard to detect in the living insect. 



The ovipositor in the black species is very long. I have 

 had some measure two inches, and the eggs are not always all 

 laid at the one laying. The brown species has a much shorter 

 and thicker egg-placer, one suited more for navvying, and she 



