230 ORTHOPTERA OF NOVA SCOTIA. — PIERS. - 



later, about the first week of August. For a considerable 

 time, nymphs and adults of the same species may be col- 

 lected together, showing that the period of hatching extends 

 over a considerable number of days. August and most of 

 September are the months when the song-making species 

 are most loudly heard, although the notes of some species 

 are still heard in October, but are then less vehement. Ovi- 

 position probably takes place fairly generally in September, 

 but we have little data on this point. In the case of the 

 Grouse-locusts (Acrydiince) it must be much earlier, as these 

 insects pass through the egg stage and come to maturity 

 in the same season before hibernating. 



Generally speaking, the first hoar-frost of about 20th 

 Sept. (13 — 29th Sept.) has little effect upon our Orthoptera, 

 unless it is to lessen the volume of their notes; except in the 

 case of the very frail Conocephalus fasciatus which succumbs 

 to the lowering temperature in the middle of that month. 

 The first hard frosts which usually occur about 16th Oct. 

 (15 — 31 Oct.), appear to be the critical factor which deter- 

 mines the existence of a large number of our Orthoptera, 

 although the Crickets, our hardiest species, often survive 

 as late as about the middle of November, and in one instance, 

 in 1916, four inches of snow fell only two days after the last 

 Ground Crickets (Nemohius) were seen. The middle of 

 November is therefore the close of our orthopteran year which 

 had opened in the middle of April and had reached its culmi- 

 nation about the last part of August and the first part of 

 September. A few individuals, in rare instances, are able 

 to casually survive sometime longer by getting into 

 hay-ricks or other sheltered nooks, from which they languidly 

 crawl on a sunny day. 



A succession of dry summers and perhaps of winters 

 when the soil is not much affected by thaws and severe 

 frost, seem favourable to the multiplication of Orthoptera; 

 the largest numbers, I believe, being met after such conditions. 



