31 



•especially near tha coast, and not frequenting woods or similar 

 places. The accuracy with which its colouring often assimilates to 

 that of its surroundings is very remarkable and as a consequence 

 there are many colour variations. A very beautiful rosy form has 

 been given the varietal name piirpnrasceu-'i, Fieb., a greenish one 

 DwUia, Charp., and a dark one nuirina, Fieb. The short but dilated 

 mediastinal area, coupled with the much angled lateral ridges of 

 the pronotum and the unclubbed antenna?, should allow of this 

 species being distinguished without much difficulty. N. hicahir has 

 often been confused with a closely related species S. I)ii/iittiiliis, 

 which lives in woods, but is at present not known as British. In 

 Surrey, I have taken S. bicolor in November. 



Chorthippus elegans, Charp. — We now come to two species, 

 not much alike in many respects, but agreeing in the pos- 

 session of nearly straight lateral ridges to the pronotum, and in 

 this respect differing from all the other British representatives 

 of the Acridiodea. These are C. elegans and its congener C. 

 paralleltis. On the Continent C. ele(jans is widely distributed, 

 though apparently it cannot be called a common insect, and much 

 the same must be said of it in England. Records for this country 

 are not very numerous, though too many for me to give them 

 seriatim. None occur farther north than Lincolnshire. There is 

 but one for Wales — Penmaenmawr (Porritt) — and none for either 

 Scotland or Ireland. 



From personal acquaintance with the species in the New Forest. 

 I should say that its home is usually some damp grassy spot, and 

 as a matter of fact it is often reported from marshy localities ; but 

 it also occurs on sandhills as at Deal and Sandwich. I have found 

 it to be somewhat sluggish in its movements. In grassy spots in 

 the New Forest the dorsal colouring was often greenish (though 

 sometimes brown) harmonizing with the grass ; but Mr. Hamm 

 found it brown in colour on the Deal sandhills, harmonising with 

 the colour of the soil. 



<'. fiarallelns being the only other British species with parallel 

 ridges to the pronotum, it is necessary only to find for C. elerjans 

 sufficient points of distinction from that species. The comparatively 

 small males look very much alike, but in C. elet/ans the wings are 

 fully developed, while in C. paialUiiis they are aborted. In the 

 former species the females have fully developed elytra and wings, 

 while in the latter both are very much aborted. 



Chorthippus parallelus, Zett., disputes with S. bicolor the 

 possession of ihe title of the commonest of British grasshoppers. 

 I have records extending from the north of Sutherland in Scotland, 

 to the Lizard in Cornwall, and Folkestone in Kent; but while I 

 have a number for Scotland and several for Wales, there are none 

 whatever for Ireland. The species seems to be equally common 

 throughout Europe. In my experience it has a liking for meadows 

 and open places, especially where the ground is wet or, at any rate, 



