A HISTORY OF ESSEX species. Others were searched for in 1 900 but only ordinary specimens were found. Locustidce. Locusta viridissima, L., is the largest of our indigenous Orthoptera, and it may appear strange to some that the creatures we have so long known as locusts should be placed with the grasshoppers, while this giant grasshopper is classed with the locusts ; but it must be remembered that those who are responsible for the present classification of the Orthoptera are not responsible for their popular English names. This conspicuous insect is sometimes brought to the entomologist as a great curiosity, but to him it is generally a very familiar object, for it is often common in his hunting grounds, though the ordinary passer-by may fail to see it. Decticidce. Tbamnotrizon dnereum, L. This large brown species is frequently found in nettles and other herbage in the autumn and in the larva stage earlier in the year ; it is very plentiful in some of the lanes about Colchester. Platycleis grisea, Fabr., is very much more local and has so far only been found on the sea coast among rest harrow. GRYLLODEA Crickets Gryllldce. The House Cricket (Gryllus domesticus] is very common in bakehouses, where it excavates extensive burrows between the brick- work near the oven and increases and multiplies prodigiously. Its shrill chirp is also a familiar sound in many an English house that has been a home for several generations, though it appears to be incompatible with new houses and the methods of the modern builder. Gryllotalpidrt. The Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa gryllotalpai) is very rare in the county. Two specimens have been found near Colchester, Mr. Fitch has secured two or three near Maldon, and it has also been reported from Dovercourt by Mr. G. F. Mathew, and from the Southend district. As it makes an effective illustration it is often figured in books on injurious insects, whereby an erroneous impression is apt to be conveyed, for though on the continent it really seems harmful sometimes, the British collector always considers it a good find. NEUROPTERA ODONATA Dragonflies There are some who affect to despise popular science, and who especially object to the employment of trivial names for our native animals and plants. But happily for our literature and especially for our poetry the popular names of many of our wild flowers, birds and insects, were definitely fixed long before the scientific pedant appeared upon the scene. And any one who has watched the larger Odonata hawking for their prey and has marked their rapid evolutions among 94
