X. PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE ORTHOPTERA OF NOVA SCOTIA. 

 BY HARRY PIERS. 



(Read 13th April, 1896.) 



The order Orthoptera, which includes the cockroaches, 

 crickets, grasshoppers, locusts, earwigs, etc., may be defined as 

 a group of insects having mouth parts formed for biting, an 

 incomplete metamorphosis, and four wings, the first pair thick- 

 ened, the second pair thin and folded into longitudinal plaits 

 when at rest. 



The species of this order are mostly common and well- 

 known ; and as many of them are very destructive to vegetation, 

 their study is of much economic importance. In the United 

 States, extensive reports have been made upon the more harmful 

 kinds, and the question of how to keep them in check has 

 been carefully considered by many experts. 



With the exception of incidental notes in Walker's list of 

 Canadian species,* the Orthoptera of Nova Scotia have received 

 no attention from naturalists. During the past year (1895) and 

 occasionally in former seasons, I have given some attention to 

 their collection and study, and I now present a few preliminary 

 notes on the species which have so far come to my notice. I 

 hope to devote some years to their study, and will, I trust, at 

 a future time be able to give a full account of our species. 

 It is probable that the Orthopterous fauna of this province does 

 not embrace a great many species, but future collecting will 

 reveal the presence of a number which have not come under my 

 observation during the time I have already devoted to the order. 



The Orthoptera of Nova Scotia, as far as observed by me, 

 represent four families, viz , (1) the Blattidse or cockroaches, of 

 which two species (introduced) are recorded in the following 

 pages, and one or more other species will doubtless be found 



* Vide Hcmiptcra, Heteroptera and Derrnaptera (Orthoptera) of America to the 

 north of the United States. By Francis Walker, F. L. S., London, England. Canadian 

 Entomologist, vol. iv., 1872, pp. 29-31. 



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