ORTHOPTERA. 
459 
LoCUSTIDiE. 
Phalangopsis amwlaia^ sp. n., Bilimek, Verb, zool.-bot. Ges. in Wien, xvii. 
p. 904, Mexico (Cave of Cacahuainilpa). 
Acrydiid^e. 
Koppen lias published (Horse Soc. Eat. Ross. iii. pp. 89-246) an elabo- 
rate memoir on the migratory Locust of Southern Russia. He gives in the 
first place a bibliography of his subject, which includes several memoirs pub- 
lished in Russian journals. With regard to the species, Koppen remarks on 
the various opinions of entomologists as to the relation between Pachytylm 
mifjratorius (Linn.) and P. cinerascens (Fab.), and conies to the conclusion 
. that the two supposed species are to be regarded as varieties of one and the 
same, and that CEdipoda tatraica (Motsch.) is identical with P. cinerascens. 
The form which he met with most abundantly in South Russia is the trud 
P. migratorim. 
The development of the insect is described by Koppen in detail. The eggs 
are deposited by the females, to the number of 60-100 together, in little nests 
surrounded by a membranous envelope ; the eggs are laid in autumn and the 
young hatched in the following spring. The envelope is burst a little while 
before the exclusion of the young. The eggs display a great power of resist- 
ing-the influence of cold ; they have been found to retain their vitality when 
the temperature reached —26° F., when placed with earth in a large glass 
vessel. 
The latvae are said by Koppen to moult four times, and the fourth moult 
produces the winged insect. The different stages are described by Koppen. 
At the end of May (1861), eggs taken from the ground showed the eyes, 
antennpo, segments, and logs of the larvm distinctly j and a little while before 
hatching, the larvm could move within the egg. On its eme:^ence the 
larva is yellowish white, with a rosy tinge \ in 3-4 hours its colour is grey- 
ish black. Before and during each moult the larvae are sluggish. At the 
final moult, which always takes place in the hottest sunshine, the animals 
hang head downwards, by the hind feet, upon the stalks of grasses &c. This 
enables the insects to twist about in all directions, in order to free themselves 
from the skin. The expansion of the wings occupies about twenty minutes 
after the completion of the moult (twenty-two minutes according to Koste, 
who says that the moult itself occupies sixteen minutes); during this period 
Koppen observed that a dark yellow fluid was distributed over the wings in 
microscopic drops. The period which elapses between the arrival of the 
insect at the winged state and the deposition hf the eggs is uncertain ; the 
statements of different authors vary between 4 weeks and 2 months. 
Koppen describes the nearly indiscriminate voracity of these Insects, but 
remarks that certain plants appear to be avoided by them, namely, flax and 
hemp, the Cucurbitacese, and, according to Petzholdt, dwarf garden-beans. 
The Graminero seem to furnish their favourite food. They prefer the leaves 
and other soft parts of plants and trees, but also sometimes gnaw the bark 
and even the wood of the latter. In time of scarcity they will attack straw 
tliatch and woollen clothes, and even devour each other. Koppen notices 
the statement made by various authors that the larvm for the first ten days 
live upon dew, and treats it as an absurdity. 
The perfect insects copulate almost immediately after the last change of 
