INSECTS 



Considering its comparatively small area and northern situation, the 

 county of Durham possesses a fairly numerous insect fauna, although of 

 course not to be compared with more southern districts. The surface of 

 the county is exceedingly varied. Passing inland from the sea all kinds 

 of situations are met with, from the grassy sand-dunes or flower-clad 

 banks of the coast line, up through the highly-cultivated central districts, 

 to the upper dales with their wooded glens and grassy or heather-clad 

 hills. Marshland also is found along the Skern and Lower Tees. Thus 

 maritime, marsh-loving, and Alpine species, as well as those preferring 

 ordinary inland conditions, can all find a congenial habitat within the 

 county. Again, with its three great seaports, through which pass large 

 quantities of foreign timber and produce of various kinds, the county 

 is continually receiving insect stowaways in one or other of their life 

 stages, aliens — in many cases undesirable aliens — some of whom become 

 naturalized in the land of their exile, and thus add to the variety of its 

 insect life. Though far to the north and therefore outside the fringe of 

 European Continental species which spread themselves over the southern 

 counties, Durham, with its eastern situation, receives, at least at its 

 southern border, part of the great migration stream which crosses the 

 German Ocean from the Continent, and there is reason to believe that 

 along with the birds there come from time to time insect immigrants, 

 who either recruit the ranks of former arrivals or add new species to the 

 county list. But, except among the Lepidoptera, the students of insect 

 life within the county have been few. So much so, that almost on the 

 eve of publication I was applied to by the editor to supply some account 

 of the insects of Durham outside of the Lepidoptera and the Diptera, as 

 he had been unable to get anyone to undertake the other orders. Only 

 a few weeks were allowed to complete the work, and I had not made a 

 special study of these other orders, having only undertaken to be respon- 

 sible for the Diptera. Under these difficult circumstances, I must 

 therefore plead for the indulgence of critics as regards any omissions or 

 mistakes in the following lists, which, however, I believe very fairly 

 represent our actual knowledge of the insect inhabitants of the county up 

 to the present. 



ORTHOPTERA 



Earwigs, Grasshoppers, Crickets, Cockroaches, etc. 



This order has been entirely neglected in Durham, but it is very poorly represented as 

 hi as native or naturalised kinds are concerned, and there are probably under a dozen species 

 in the county altogether. But occasionally curious foreigners make their appearance in fruit 

 or cargoes of produce, and some make a vain attempt to obtain a footing, establishing them- 

 selves for a time in some sheltered nook and apparently breeding, but eventually destroyed by 

 the severity of the climate or the want of their natural food. 



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