A HISTORY OF SURREY 



heard after dark on warm August and September evenings, especially 

 before rain. Platycleis brachyptera, L. This is a local species. It is 

 common at Esher and on Oxshott Heath, also at Wisley, Leith Hill, 

 Woking and Pyrford. 



GRYLLODEA 

 Crickets 



Gryllida. The House Cricket, Gryllus domesticus, L., is abundant 

 under artificial conditions. It can only live in warm places, and so is 

 confined mainly to kitchens, bakehouses and restaurants. 



NEUROPTERA 



Psocids, Stone-flies, May-flies, Dragon/lies, Lacewing-flies and Caddis-flies 



Perhaps no group of the Insecta is better represented in Surrey 

 than the Neuroptera. Several of the sub-orders (or orders), collected 

 under Linnaeus' comprehensive title, pass the early, or nymph, stage in 

 the water. Such are the Perlidae (stone-flies), Ephemeridce (May-flies), 

 Odonata (dragonflies), and Tricboptera (caddis-flies). All these are well 

 represented and widely distributed, except perhaps the first, whose 

 nymphs as a rule prefer swiftly flowing streams, which of course are not 

 numerous in a district whose greatest elevation does not reach 1,000 

 feet. The Psocidee and Planipennia, which complete the group, are well 

 provided for in the numerous woods of oak and Scotch fir to be found 

 throughout the county, the latter tree growing luxuriantly on the 

 generally unproductive stretches of Bagshot Sand. 



Until recently the first three groups, viz. the Psocidee, the Per- 

 lidce and the Ephemeridae, have received but scanty attention at the 

 hands of Surrey collectors since the days of Stephens, Curtis and New- 

 man, by whom many species were recorded. Owing to the changes in 

 nomenclature, the confusion then existing between allied species and the 

 subsequent discovery of species new to our list, it is unsafe to rely on 

 these old records without individual verification, and they therefore are 

 not used in compiling the present list. 



The first of these groups, the Psocidee, is fairly well represented ; 

 and if collectors would but record the species they capture, the list would 

 soon show how rich the county is in the group. Of the portion of it that 

 is wingless, or only possessing the most rudimentary wings, Atropos divina- 

 toria, Miill., so long supposed to be the cause of the noise familiarly 

 known as the * deathwatch,' is unfortunately common in houses among 

 old papers, books, botanical and other collections, and is perhaps quite as 

 common and destructive as Clothilla pulsatoria, Linn., which is so terrible 

 an enemy to ill-kept collections. Clothilla picea, Mots., a species not so 

 rare as formerly, and usually found indoors, has been recorded from 

 Leatherhead, and would probably be found to be fairly common if search 

 were made in cellars, old store-rooms and similar localities. 



The winged section of the group is chiefly taken by beating or 



76 



