PRELIMINARY NOTES 



ON THE 



ORTHOPTERA. 



. IN THE VICINITY OF MANCHESTER. 



BY MISS SUSY C. FOGG. 



During the summer of 1899, to aid in broadening the defined 

 work of the Entomological Section of the Manchester Institute 

 of Arts and Sciences, an effort was made to ascertain existing 

 forms of Orthoptera within a short radius of the surrounding 

 country. 



We realize the list to be incomplete, but hope that it may be 

 augmented by future observation and that species may be added 

 which shall be significant of our location on or near the isothermal 

 line separating the great continental provinces. 



This ancient order, fossil remains of which are found belonging 

 to the Tertiary period and which, with forms of Neuroptera, are 

 among the oldest types of insects known, has come down to us 

 with its ranks shattered by the severe struggle of competition 

 through the ages, and to-day there is no other order containing 

 so few families and genera as the Orthoptera, which is at the same 

 time proportionately numerous in individuals. 



The Grasshopper is a representative type of this order, and 

 although not a form of high specialization, neither has it degener- 

 ated, as is true of many types of insects. All that it has ever 

 been it still is. 



The variation in form of the several Orthopteran groups, their 

 long, long history, interwoven with the world's own, their econ- 

 omic bearing, which is of vital importance, the beauty of certain 

 species included within the Acrididas and Locustidse, and their 

 peculiar place in literature, all tend to make the order an interest- 

 ing study to the entomologist. 



