Courtship of certain European Acridiidx. 241 
ing, as the male finally left her of his own accord. This 
observation was made by both of us, and was of great 
interest. When we first saw them, the male was firmly 
holding the female, but she kept struggling violently, 
and trying to kick him off with her powerful third legs. 
On at least three separate occasions the pair rolled over, 
and remained in this position, with the male beneath, 
for about half a minute. At such times the female was 
unable to stregele at all successfully, and it seemed 
possible that the male, when he was nearly unseated, 
caused the pair to roll over; we could not, however, be 
sure of this. Ultimately the male leaped off voluntarily, 
as I have already stated. One side of the dorsal surface 
of an abdominal segment was wounded in the female, but 
as the injury did not appear to be fresh, it is not probable 
that the male caused it. 
In one or two cases the female, and once the male, 
expelled feces just before or during copulation. The 
feeces were of the character already described, and not in 
the usual dry state. ' 
In no single case was any preliminary courtship wit- 
nessed in this species. There was no stridulation, no 
display of colour or attitude. It was entirely a question 
of capture, the females being almost invariably, at any 
rate at first, unwilling prisoners, although occasionally 
they showed indications of excitement in the presence of 
a male. 
It is highly probable that pairing takes place many 
times in this species, and even more than once with the 
same male. 
There was an extremely high proportion of individuals 
in coitu, even allowing for the fact that their habit of 
freely jumping about renders them much more con- 
spicuous than the unpaired males and females. The 
proportion was far higher than that of any other 
Orthopterous insect cbserved during this visit to Switzer- 
land; it is possible, however, that the principal pairing 
time of other species is earlier in the year. 
GOMPHOCERUS SIBERICUS (var.). 
This form was excessively abundant round the Weisshorn 
Hotel, no other species approaching it in numbers. On 
one occasion, after heavy rain, I’. Jenkinson saw immense 
