A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



species. Others were searched for in 1 900 but only ordinary specimens 

 were found. 



Locustidce. Locusta viridissima, L., is the largest of our indigenous 

 Orthoptera, and it may appear strange to some that the creatures we 

 have so long known as locusts should be placed with the grasshoppers, 

 while this giant grasshopper is classed with the locusts ; but it must be 

 remembered that those who are responsible for the present classification 

 of the Orthoptera are not responsible for their popular English names. 

 This conspicuous insect is sometimes brought to the entomologist as a 

 great curiosity, but to him it is generally a very familiar object, for it is 

 often common in his hunting grounds, though the ordinary passer-by 

 may fail to see it. 



Decticidce. Tbamnotrizon dnereum, L. This large brown species is 

 frequently found in nettles and other herbage in the autumn and in the 

 larva stage earlier in the year ; it is very plentiful in some of the lanes 

 about Colchester. 



Platycleis grisea, Fabr., is very much more local and has so far only 

 been found on the sea coast among rest harrow. 



GRYLLODEA 



Crickets 



Gryllldce. The House Cricket (Gryllus domesticus] is very common 

 in bakehouses, where it excavates extensive burrows between the brick- 

 work near the oven and increases and multiplies prodigiously. Its shrill 

 chirp is also a familiar sound in many an English house that has been a 

 home for several generations, though it appears to be incompatible with 

 new houses and the methods of the modern builder. 



Gryllotalpidrt. The Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa gryllotalpai) is very 

 rare in the county. Two specimens have been found near Colchester, 

 Mr. Fitch has secured two or three near Maldon, and it has also been 

 reported from Dovercourt by Mr. G. F. Mathew, and from the Southend 

 district. As it makes an effective illustration it is often figured in 

 books on injurious insects, whereby an erroneous impression is apt 

 to be conveyed, for though on the continent it really seems harmful 

 sometimes, the British collector always considers it a good find. 



NEUROPTERA 



ODONATA 



Dragonflies 



There are some who affect to despise popular science, and who 

 especially object to the employment of trivial names for our native 

 animals and plants. But happily for our literature and especially for 

 our poetry the popular names of many of our wild flowers, birds and 

 insects, were definitely fixed long before the scientific pedant appeared 

 upon the scene. And any one who has watched the larger Odonata 

 hawking for their prey and has marked their rapid evolutions among 



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