Roebuck : Locusts in Yorkshire. 



149 



In the Fj?itomologisfs Moidlily Magazine for January, 1877 (xiii. 

 179 and 180) and February (xiii. 216), I gave a list of all the 

 specimens enumerated above. To my first note Mr. McLachlan 

 appended the following remarks, which I will take the liberty of 

 quoting : — " It is generally acknowledged by orthopterists that there 

 are two species confused under the name of Fachytykis migratorius^ 

 one of which should bear the familiar name, and the other that of 

 P. cinerascens (Fab.) As I understand these species at this moment, 

 the visitors to Yorkshire are the latter. There exists an idea that 

 this breeds annually in certain parts of Northern Europe {e.g. Belgium) 

 whereas the former only appears occasionally. — R. McLachlan." — 

 {E. M. M., Jan., 1877, xiii. 180.) 



In a subsequent note (E.M.M., Feb., 1877, xiii. 216), after stating 

 that Barori de Selys-Longchamps agrees with him in naming our 

 1876 examples P. cinera-scem, Mr. McLachlan says that it is probable 

 that the greater part of the locusts which occur in Britain appertain 

 to that species. 



Because most occurrences are recorded with the name P. migratorius 

 we are not hastily to conclude that the recorders have attempted to 

 make a distinction between the two closely allied species ; for it is 

 very probable that most naturalists, when recording the capture of 

 P. migratorius, simply wish to announce that they have taken a 

 " locust," and not to imply that they have attempted to discriminate 

 between the two species. 



Thus, a specimen which was taken in Leeds several years ago, and 

 which is not included in my list given above because I am not aware 

 of the precise year of its capture, has been carefully compared by 

 myself and Mr. W. H. Taylor, to whom it belongs, with the specimens 

 taken last year, and also with descriptions, the result being that we 

 cannot see that it is anything else but the same species. 



The notion that P. cinerascetis is really the commonly occurring 

 locust in the British Isles, and P. migratorius a species of much more 

 unfrequent occurrence, is supported by Mr. McLachlan's statement 

 that " it is probable that the greater part of those taken in Britain 

 are cinerascens''' ; and also by the opinion of the Baron de Selys- 

 Longchamps, " that he is persuaded that this species breeds- regularly 

 in Britain (as, according to him, it does in Belgium)," an opinion 

 which Mr. McLachlan does not share {E.M.M., Feb., 1877, xiii., 216), 



The European distribution of the two, as stated by M. Brunner van 

 Wattenwyl (Selys-Longchamps. A^tn. Soc. Ent. Belg., xi. 32) also 

 strengthens this view. He states that P. migratorius inhabits Eastern 



