478 Insects. 



one at Hollymor, a village about two miles from the sea, and two more by a gentleman 

 residing at Koos, which is little more than a mile from the coast. According to the 

 following paragraph from the ' Hull Packet ' of September the 9th, 1842, this insect 

 has also been taken near Scarborough. " Scarborough, Sept. 8. Extraordinary visi- 

 tant. Rarely has the locust, that terrible scourge of so many warmer climates, been 

 seen in our favoured land. But exceptions do occur ; and two specimens of the Afri- 

 can species, upwards of three inches in length, were taken last week in this vicinity ; 

 one is yet alive in the possession of a gentleman in Scarborough, and the other has 

 been preserved by Mr. Williamson for the Museum. It is truly to be hoped that these 

 are only accidental stragglers, and not the avant couriers of a flight such as alarmed 

 the southern parts of England, and especially London, in August, 1748." I have also 

 copied a paragraph from the 'Yorkshire Gazette' of January, 21, 1843, from which it 

 appears that this insect was also found further inland about the same time last year. 

 " Locusts in England. About three weeks ago a labouring man took a specimen of 

 the Gryllus migratorius, or Asiatic locust, in a field at Stonegravels, near Chesterfield. 

 The man, being struck by its unusual appearance and activity, after a severe chase, 

 succeeded in capturing it in safety. It is now in the cabinet of a gentlemau in Ches- 

 terfield. We understand that several others have been taken in this and the neigh- 

 bouring counties in the present year ; one in Sheffield in the beginning of September, 

 another in Mickleover, near Derby, nearly at the same time ; a third about the middle 

 of the same month, near Burton-on-Trent ; the latter was found to be a female, con- 

 taining about forty or fifty eggs, apparently ready to be deposited. The gentleman 

 who captured the last-mentioned specimen, says that he disturbed it in getting over a 

 hedge near which it was reposing; and that, when first discovered, the insect sprang 

 a distance of fourteen yards. — Stamford Mercury." — William Sherwood ; Rysome 

 Garth, near Patrington, Holderness, Yorkshire, January, 1844. 



Notice of Branchi<B in Pteronarcys regalis.* 



The labours of Marcel de Serres, Leon Dufour, Savigny and Straus- 

 Durckheim, have justly excited the admiration of all those, who going 

 beyond the superficial and arbitrary distinctions on which the genera 

 of insects are founded, have studied their organization, and sought 

 wisdom from the fountain-head — Nature herself. Beautiful and truly 

 w r onderful are the facts, the adaptations, the contrivances which these 

 authors have unfolded, illustrated and explained ; and the obligations 

 they have conferred on the students of in sect- an atomy, is cheerfully 

 and universally acknowledged. Still, when we analyse their labours 

 and divide them into so many separate discoveries, not one of those 



* On the existence of Branchiae in the perfect state of a Neuropterous Insect, — 

 Pteronarcys regalis, Newman, and other species of the same genus. By George New- 

 port, Pres. Ent. Soc. &c. Read at the Meeting of the Entomological Society, Dec. 

 4, 1843, and printed in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History J for January, 

 1844. 



