COLEOPTERA. 77 



line, and dive upon the least disturbance, remaining under water for 

 some minutes, and snealiing to the surface again beneath the shelter 

 of the log. They do not appear to take doAvn much air with them, as 

 no part of the body looks silvery under water. I have occasionally 

 seen the winged males rising from the surface of the river and taking 

 flight, but I was never able to detect them actually in the water. The 

 jungle specimens were all females; they were taken either in the water 

 or among the matted roots with which the sides of the stream were 

 covered. 



The best known cricket in the Malay peninsula, though very few 

 people have actually seen it, is the " Singing earthworm " of the 

 Malays and colonists. It is a species of ('irijUutalpa, which lives 

 in holes in the ground,- whence it gives forth in the evenings a deep 

 organ-like note, so loud, and so musical, that, until one has had some 

 experience of the jungle noises, one can hardly credit it to an insect, 

 much less to an earthworm. Other species of crickets sing about the 

 houses, producing a sound like a gritty piece of chalk on a blackboard, 

 which is annoying at night. The number of species and individuals, 

 however, is limited. 



Among the lalang grass (Imperatia koenujii), which is the earliest 

 and most pernicious of the weeds that appear in a Malay clearing, 

 the orthopteran life is so rich that the general name " belalang " has 

 been bestowed on all grasshoppers and locusts by the Malays, who 

 have a surprising knowledge as to the facts of the biology of their 

 country, though their theories are at least as wild as those of some 

 European zoologists. They know, for instance, that a certain large 

 parasitic Nematode issues from the body of a Mantis. From this they 

 have concluded that the worm is the child of the insect. They have 

 further imagined that its father must be an earthworm, and they 

 have invented a story which, to compare little things with great, may 

 be likened to that of the origin of the Cretan Minotaur. None of the 

 species that live among the " lalang " are of any great size, the largest 

 not being more than two inches in length. They are mostly Acridiids, 

 but a few crickets, larval Mantids, and cockroaches may be found 

 with them, and, on the hills, certain Phasmids and also species of 

 Necrosia. 



[To he conic lid ed.) 



©OLEOPTERA. 



ScoLYTus KUGUL0SU3 IN Prunus lauro-cerasus. — That Diloha 

 caeruleopliala and other lepidoptera eat the leaves of the common laurel 

 is no doubt matter for surprise, and so every now and then it comes 

 up for notice in the magazines, I suppose, like the big gooseberry and 

 the sea-serpent. That the wood and bark should make good insect 

 food is, perhaps, less against our preconceived opinions, but perhaps 

 sufficiently interesting to note, though it may have been frequently 

 done already. I believe I have somewhere noted Seinasia u-oeheriana in 

 the bark of cherry laurel, and I think I have seen the work of Scolytus 

 pruni therein. I have recently seen the work of S. nu/ulosHs in dead 

 branches of laurel here at Reigate. — T. A. Chapman, M.D., Betula, 

 Eeigate. January, 1900. 



A Few Notes on Suffolk Coleoptera. — Having had the pleasure 

 of a couple of days' collecting in the Ipswich neighbourhood with Mr. 



