CURRENT NOTES. 17 



exquisite appearance, but anyone who knows how very variable in the 

 number, size, and shape of its white marks ab. vmieyata is, would see 

 at a glance that Mr. Raynor's exquisita is nothing more than a form 

 of it, and as such it has no more claim to have another varietal name 

 given to it, than have dozens of the many other forms of the variety, 

 and which to name differently would be absurd. — Geo. T. Porritt, 

 Elm Lea, Dalton, Huddersfield. December BOth, 1918. 



(CURRENT NOTES AND SHORT NOTICES. 



In the annals of the Caucasus Museum (our copy of the reprint un- 

 fortunately not giving reference), probably late in 1916 or early in 1917, 

 N. Adelung describes a new species of Gampsocleis, G. shelkovnikovae, 

 discovered by Captain Burr at Geok Tapa, in the Transcaucasus, in 

 July, 1915. This is an interesting species. Unlike all but one of its 

 congeners, which are mottled and usually brown, this handsome 

 species is uniform green, and closely resembles the ubiquitous Lociista 

 viridissima, for which it was for some time mistaken. It may, how- 

 ever, be distinguished at once in the field by its characteristic Decti- 

 cine note, and by the fact that it stridulates during the heat of the 

 afternoon, leaving off at dusk, just when the chorus of Locusta strikes 

 up. It is closely related to the scarce G. ussmiensis, AdeL' from the 

 distant River Ussur, near Vladivostok, familiar now from the military 

 operations being conducted there. Both are big, all green species, but 

 in the Caucasian one the subgenital lamina of the male is longer and 

 narrower, more strongly keeled in the centre, and more obtusely excised 

 posteriorly ; there are also other slight differences. It has since been 

 recognised from several other localities in the Caucasus, on both sides 

 of the main range. Adelung concludes with a note on the nine species 

 of Gampsocleis known in Russia. (Only two are known in Europe 

 outside Russia, e.g., G. abbreviatus, Br., from Macedonia, and the 

 handsome G. glabra, sporadically occurring as far west as Belgium.) 

 These are (1) G. glabra, Herbst., the type of the genus, throughout 

 south-central Russia as far as Semirechinsk ; (la) G. podolica, Shug., 

 from Podolia ; (2) G. spinulosa, Krauss, from the upper Hoang-Ho, and 

 in the Governments of Irkutsk and Yeniseisk ; (3) G. kraussi, AdeL, 

 from Siberia; (4) G. sovinskyi, Adel., from Siberia; (5) G. caudata, 

 AdeL, from Yakutsk ; (6) G. christinichi, AdeL, from near Vladivostok ; 

 (7) G. iissuriensis, AdeL, from the same neighbourhood ; (8) G. sp., 

 from an unknown locality ; and (9) G. shelkovnikovae, from the Cau- 

 casus. Uvaroff has already sunk G. annae, Shug., in the first named 

 species. As Russian specimens of G. glabra are paler and have a 

 longer ovipositor than those from Western Europe generally, time may 

 show that it is a distinct sub-species, like the handsome Spanish 

 form.— M.B. 



The Russian scientific expedition to Persian Kurdistan referred to 

 previously in these notes was a great success. The party left Tiflis on 

 May 3rd, 1916, returning on July 11th, after visiting Tabriz, Maragi, 

 Urmi, Salmasta, and Khoja, and a few other inhabited islands in the 

 Lake of Urmi. In spite of the disappointing incapacity of the botanist, 

 and the accident to Smirnoff the zoologist, who broke his leg early in 

 the journey and had to return to Tiflis, the expedition was a great 

 success. About 8,000 specimens of insects were taken. It was early 

 for Orthoptera, but a fine series of the interesting genus Nocarodes was 



