114 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



colojiibii, both sexes, in abundance here. Other species which 

 were common were Calopteryx splendens (the southern form, 

 different from that found at Aries), Agrion lindenii, and 

 Platycnemis latipes. 



BRITISH ORTHOPTERA IN 1911. 



By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. 



(Plate IV.) 



Though nothing of special importance occurred during the 

 year just passed in connection with the British Orthoptera, yet a 

 few facts which have come to my knowledge should, I think, be 

 put on record ; for it is only by persistent observations, each 

 one of little consequence perhaps in itself, that we shall ever 

 become well acquainted with the distribution and habits of the 

 British examples of this important Order of insects. 



Forficulodea.— On July 16th Mr. J. R. le B. Tomlin sent me 

 some specimens of the little earwig {Labia minor), which he said 

 were then common in his garden at Reading. Of the common 

 earwig {Forficula auricularia) , Col. J. W. Yerbury brought me a 

 few examples from the North of Scotland. One fine large male 

 was taken at Spey Bridge on July 31st. Large specimens of the 

 \Q,i'.forcipata are not infrequent, but this is, I think, the finest 

 example of the normal form that I have seen. Its total length 

 is 20*5 millimetres, 5*5 of them being due to the callipers, 

 which are of the ordinary circular shape. There were also two 

 nymphs of the same species, " swept in a damp shady spot " at 

 Lochinver on July 11th, and two other nymphs "found under 

 stones and cow-dung near Glencanisp Lodge," Lochinver, on 

 June 21st. On October 14th I took a female of this species 

 on ivy-blossom in a garden at Eltbam, in Kent. Mr. Burr tells 

 me that he took Apterygida alhipennis in 1911, at Beachborough, 

 behind Folkestone, in Kent. 



Blattodea. — During 1911 the cockroaches have not been to 

 the fore, and I have but a single note. Mr. Burr, writing early 

 in February, 1911, told me that, on January 31st, when the 

 •' country was iron-bound in a black frost," he found Blattella 

 germanica and Blatta orientalis swarming within a rubbish- 

 heap in a brick-yard near Cheriton, Kent. Though the weather 

 was very cold, the fermentation in the large heap of ashes and 

 refuse produced much heat. In this case, of course, the con- 

 genial warmth accounts for the presence of these cockroaches 

 out-of-doors. To find such insects, which are not indigenous 

 with us, under these conditions at any time is very unusual, and 

 much less do we expect to meet with them abroad in the winter. 



