OF ORTHOPTEUA IN THE CAUCASUS AND WESTERN ASIA. 463 



this district are foreign to other districts of the Balkano- 

 Anatolian province, eight of them being peculiar Somkheto- 

 Kakhetian forms. The remaining eight species are : 



Stenobothrus lineatus. Platycleis vittata. 



Pcecilimon distinctus. Olynthoscelis falla.v. 



IsopLj'a adelungi. Neniobius tartarus. 



„ pyrenrea. Gryllus lateralis. 



Out of these only Stenobothrus lineatus and Platycleis vittata 

 may be regarded as proofs of the influence of the steppe fauna ; 

 two Gryllids are of desert or-igin ; and all others belong to the 

 Balkano- Anatolian genera. 



The above is sufhcient to enable us to come to the conclusion 

 that this district may be regarded as a part of the Balkano- 

 Anatolian province, a conclusion confirmed by the study of the 

 Somkheto-Kakhetian endemics. They are eiglit in number, as 

 follows : 



Arcyptera'flavicosta transcaucasica. 



Celes variabilis carbonaria. 



Tmethis zaitzevi. 



Nocarodes rimansoiige. 



Podisraa koeingi (peculiar to this and Pontian district). 



Isopbj'a bivittata. 



Leptopbj^es iiigrovittata. 



Olynthoscelis distincta. 



All these peculiar forms, with the exception of Arcyptera, 

 Podisma, and Celes, belong to the Balkano-Anatolian genera, and 

 are doubtless not recent invaders. This strongly supports my 

 opinion as to the affinities of the Somkheto-Kakhetian district. 

 Podisma koenigi presents an evidence of the influence of the 

 Pontian fauna, and two peculiar characteristic steppe species, 

 Arcyptera flavicosta and Celes variabilis (as well as Stenobothrus 

 lineattts and Platycleis vittata), are doubtless immigiants from the 

 Kuban-Terek district (through the Daghestan), the somewhat 

 difterent natural conditions of Transcaucasia causing the sub- 

 specific diiFerences between the Transcaucasian and the primary 

 steppe forms. 



We ought, therefoi-e, to consider the Somkheto-Kakhetia as 

 a district of the Balkano-Anatolian province, bearing in its fauna 

 some hints of an influence of tlie South Russian steppe fauna, 

 migrating from the north around the eastern end of the 

 Caucasus through the Daghestan. 



The outlines of the Somkheto-Kakhetian district are very 

 complicated and circuitous. I include in it the southern 

 forest-clad slopes and hills of the Great Caucasus from Svanetia 

 on the west to the south-eastern extremity of this chain : here 

 the district branches around this end on thenoi'thern s'opes, thus 

 coming in contact with the Daghestanian district ; through the 

 Suram meridional chain the northern half of the Somkheto- 



Proc. ZooL. Soo.— 1921, No. XXXTI. 32 



