

REVIEWS. 148 



— It was with a delightful feeling of anticipation that I picked up my 

 old friend's book, for I had been waiting for it for nearly twenty years, 

 and it was a personal pleasure to read it through three times in suc- 

 cession. The small scope offered by our few Orthoptera has allowed 

 the author far more detail than would be possible in a work dealing 

 with a more numerous order, and the mass of personal touches gives 

 this book a human interest that is usually foreign from such a work. 

 Few living British entomologists will be able to turn over its pages 

 without finding some reference that brings back to them a flood of 

 reminiscences, half forgotten, of happy collecting days in congenial 

 company and delightful surroundings. 



Besides, it is a very suggestive book. It is evident that we are in 

 measurable distance of the attainment of a complete knowledge of a 

 finite fauna. Although one of the so-called " neglected " orders, our 

 Orthoptera are so few and at the same time so interesting, that there 

 is now no excuse for our entomologists if they leave any blanks in our 

 knowledge, and this book should give a marked stimulus to their study. 

 It is possible that a few species may be added to our list. I myself 

 have suggested that the earwig, Ghelidurella acanthopygia, Gene, may 

 be found here ; there is also the possibility of finding other West and 

 Central European species, such as Parapleiinis alliaceus, Germ., the 

 two species of (Jhrysocharon, Chorl/irppiis dorsatus, Zett., and G. longi- 

 cornis, Latr. ; Tetrizc kieff'eri, San ley, if this be really a good species ; 

 Phaneroptera falcata, Scop., is recorded under apparently natural con- 

 ditions, and its definite status should be put beyond doubt this summer. 

 It is worth a journey to Cornwall on purpose, for it is a striking and 

 handsome fellow. Then there are other striking species with a wide 

 distribution which might conceivably occur, such as the Stick Insect, 

 Bacillus gaUicus, Charp., the common Mantis religiosa, L., and Ep'hip- 

 pigera vitiitm, Serv., both of which extend to Belgium and to Normandy, 

 though perhaps it is improbable that the sharp eyes of British ento- 

 mologists should have for so many years overlooked such striking 

 forms. But the south of Ireland remains to be explored, and in Scot- 

 land we may find some of the boreal forms, as Podisma frigidum, Boh., 

 which is common in Norway ; there is the possibility of turning up the 

 rare and local Sphingdnutus cyanopterus, Charp., which is known to 

 occur in several widely separated localities in France, Germany, and 

 Scandinavia. Tetrix fuliginosus, Zett., might be found in Scotland, 

 and careful observation may yet turn up Omocestus haemorrlwidalis, 

 Charp. and Stauroderus vagans, Fieb. Myruiecophila acervorum, Panz., 

 may yet be revealed by our myrmecologists, and Westwood's record be 

 verified. It is very small and excessively active. Metrioptera sattssu- 

 reana, Frey, is a west European mountain form, which I have taken in 

 Normandy, and it might occur in our moorlands ; it closely resembles 

 M. brachyptera, L. Perhaps Pachytylus danicus, L., may settle and 

 breed here, as it has been known to do in Belgium. 



Then again, there is plenty -of scope in the comparison of our 

 British with the continental forms, in which special races may be dis- 

 criminated. This is most probable in Metrioptera albopitnctata, Goeze, 

 which is a size smaller than most European forms, with decidedly 

 shorter organs of flight : southern specimens are quite different in 

 appearance. Observation should prove the truth of the late N. 

 Adelung's contention, that Ectobius perapicillaris, Herbst., and E, 



