BRITISH GRASSHOPPERS 



875 



Tettix hipunctatus, of whom alone I 

 have certain knowledge, is a cheerful, 

 robust little Grasshopper, who is acti\-e 

 early in the spring, hngers late into 

 autumn, and may possibly hibernate. He 

 affects clearings in woods, and in suitable 

 localities occurs in prolusion. As one 

 would expect from the development of 

 his thighs, he is a prodigious jumper, 

 but it should be noted that, contrary to 

 the general rule among Grasshoppers, he 

 has no resilient pads on his feet. One 

 seldom finds a speciuK^n with other than 

 quite rudimentary wings, and I have 

 never seen one fly. 



In colour he shows , 



extraordinary vari- 

 ation ; browns and 

 blacks predomi- 

 nate, but they 

 occur in many 

 shades and in 

 many d i ft e r e n t 

 dispositions. The 

 pronotum c o m- 

 pletely hides the 

 \nngs in all ordin- 

 ary positions ; so 

 that if stridulation 

 is accomplished 

 at all by the hind-legs, it must 

 scraping on the pronotum. 



The stridulation of Long-horned Grass- 

 hoppers, which is of much greater carry- 

 ing power than that of Short-horns, and 

 is more closely allied to that of the 

 Crickets in phrasing, is effected by the 

 friction of the under surface of one wing- 

 cover — usually the left — over the upper 

 surface of the other. Stridulating wing- 

 covers, which, as far as British Grass- 

 hoppers are concerned, exist only in the 

 males, are partly, in some cases wholly, 

 composed of tense, semi-transparent 

 membranes stretched on stout branch- 

 ing nervures. The upper (left) cover 

 is generally provided with a " rasp " 

 nervure which engages with the edge of 

 the lower (right) cover and so engenders 

 a " shrill," which is intensified by the 

 structure of both, and particularly by the 

 presence in the latter of a semi-trans- 

 parent circular -'speculum." 



The " shrilling " of the male Long- 

 horned Grassho])per may be heard at 

 any time during still warm weather, but 



ACRIDIUM AiGYPTIUM {sec p. S69) 

 I. The tarsal joints. 2. The tibia (shank) 



3. The femur (thigh). 



be by 



is most in evidence towards sunset, and 

 may be prolonged far into the night. It 

 is often difficult to locate. The note of 

 T. cinereus (the Bush-cheej)) reseml)les the 

 squeak of a shrew mouse. His usual pitch 

 is an inch or so above ground level at the 

 bottom of the hedgerow. During the 

 day time he often creeps out to sun 

 himself, but so wary is he, and so quick 

 to get to cover, that it needs a smart 

 hand to catch him — and miss the thorns. 

 It has been stated that the male of T. 

 cinereus is somewhat rare. This has not 

 been my experience, but I think that there 

 are fair grounds f(jr 

 supposing that in 

 the case of Long- 

 horned Grasshop- 

 pers and Crickets 

 there is a tendency 

 for the males to 

 predominate in one 

 brood, while the 

 females predomi- 

 nate in another. 



The "ears" of 

 Long - horns are 

 situated at the 

 top of the tibial 

 (shanks) of the 

 fore-legs ; those of Crickets have a similar 

 position. There is a decided tendency 

 among Long-horned Grasshoppers to sit 

 above ground level. They therefore affect 

 the hedgerow, the nettle bed, and the 

 coppice. Short-horned Grasshoppers prefer 

 the grass. Either may trespass on the 

 other's preserves ; indeed, it is not unusual 

 to find the Great Green Grasshopper at 

 some distance from even a bramble bush. 

 In certain favoured places in the south of 

 England, one may count on finding 

 Stenohothrus and Gomphocerits in the grass, 

 Leptophyes in the nettles (by sweeping), 

 M. varium on the hazels (Bignell's Tray), 

 and L. viridissima, for all his protective 

 coloration, moving one liind-leg, and 

 so staring one in the face half-way up the 

 hedgerow. I have already mentioned the 

 wood clearing for Tettix, and the bottom 

 of the hedgerow for Thamnotrizon. The 

 latter is often in the heart of the wood 

 als(j, and it is in small circumscribed 

 sunny clearings that one has the best 

 chance of taking him in all stages of 

 growth. DouGL.\s English. 



